(electronic music phrase) - Now, when I was in high school, affirmative action just seemed like some buzzword from back in the day, but when me and my friends actually started applying at college, it was something that came up a lot. (radio chattering) (record scratching) Affirmative action is back in the news, and this time, Harvard is getting sued. Now, usually these types of lawsuits make the claim that, when race is considered in college admissions, white people are unfairly discriminated against, but this lawsuit is claiming Asian-Americans are the ones being hurt by these policies. Plot twist. So while this lawsuit against Harvard has a new angle, it really does boil down to an age-old debate over affirmative action. Should race be a factor in college admissions? Okay, so when it comes to college admissions, affirmative action refers to policies where race and gender are considered in the application process. Now, they're not the only thing that colleges are looking at. They're still looking at your grades, your SAT scores, extracurricular activities, all that good stuff, but they also take into account your race and gender in an effort to help ensure that women and minorities are getting equal access to higher education. The idea was born out of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s as a way to help counter the longstanding racist and sexists barriers that kept minorities and women out of elite universities, barriers like, oh, I don't know, the fact that women couldn't get a degree from Harvard until 1963, or the idea that people of color weren't as smart as white people. The '60s were messed up, man. We needed rules to help. Some see affirmative action as kind of like a counterbalance to legacy admissions policies, which is when applicants get preferential treatment if someone in their family attended the school, a perk that tends to benefit wealthy, white applicants, since they were the only ones getting into these elite schools in the first place. And to be clear, affirmative action isn't always about race. It's definitely helped a lot of white women, but now that co-ed is kinda the norm, the controversy is almost always over race. And over the years, there's been a stream of lawsuits challenging it, mostly from people who feel they've been unfairly rejected because of race, the most recent being this Harvard case. So let's take a look at both sides of the argument. Those in favor of affirmative action see it as a way to fight longstanding discrimination when it comes to educational opportunities. They think it's necessary in making sure that minorities with good academic standing have access to higher education, and there is some data to support this. Eight states have essentially banned affirmative action practices, and instead, have what's known as race-blind admission policies. So the New York Times looked at admissions data from public universities in a bunch of those states, and they found that when schools got rid of affirmative action, there was a dip in black and Latino students, even as their populations grew. But it wasn't true for every university and state. In fact, Florida has actually done a pretty good job of keeping its enrollment of black and Latino students at pace with the population, despite getting rid of affirmative action. Yep, you heard me right, that was Florida, the same Florida that brings you headlines like these. Affirmative action advocates also point out that a more diverse campus benefits everyone, not just the students it's specifically designed to help. With a diverse student body, all students learn valuable interpersonal skills outside of the classroom, like how to interact and respect people that are different from you, skills that set you up for a successful life in a diverse world. Now, that doesn't mean that being nice to people of color's gonna get you a lot of money, but who knows? And then, once you get into the real world, there's evidence that diverse teams make better decisions and are actually even more profitable to businesses. So maybe I was wrong (chuckles). But if you're on the other side of this argument, you don't see affirmative action that way. Many opponents believe that affirmative action policies are themselves discriminatory, and can actually create racial tension. They say that qualified candidates end up getting rejected from schools, while less qualified minority applicants get accepted for the sake of diversity. They even have a term for this, reverse discrimination, and at elite schools, less-qualified could be the difference between perfect SAT scores and getting one question wrong. And this discrimination is kind of what the Harvard lawsuit is all about. The plaintiffs are essentially claiming that Harvard is holding Asian-Americans to a higher standard because they don't want too many getting in, compared to other groups, and the argument goes, this can hurt race relations. If people are assuming that minority students are only at a school because they got special treatment, then those students might not be seen as equals in the eyes of their professors and their peers, even if they would've gotten in without affirmative action, and that doesn't exactly create an environment of inclusiveness. Some opponents say that, instead of being race-based, affirmative action should be class-based, that way a student of a single white mom from Appalachia, or a low-income Asian immigrant family, will get a leg-up. Then you're not actively hurting poor whites or Asians. And of course, there are other opponents that think even that's too far, and just want college admissions to be based on merit, at looking at your test scores and your GPA. There's also the argument that affirmative action isn't even really working. According to another New York Times analysis, admissions of black and Latino students is still lacking at many top universities, and instead of focusing efforts on affirmative action policies, some opponents think that we should tackle the problems that both low-income, and students of color, face early in the education system, problems like lack of resources or advanced course, that way, we set students up for success from the beginning. So the debate over affirmative action has been raging for years, and Americans are pretty split on the issue. It brings up some great questions about what we value as a society, and how we ensure equality. Now, I know you all have some opinions about this, so should race be a factor in college admissions? Let us know in the comments below. And speaking of college admissions, you should check out this video we did on SATs and ACTs, or we did a video on algorithms in our justice system, if you just wanna watch another dope video. As always, I'm your host, Myles Bess, and you should like and subscribe to this channel, because I liked this episode, so I hope you liked it, because it was good. I mean, I learned something. Hope you did, too. 'Til next time, guys.