What was the difference between my friend and I? Was it pure luck? This is college we are talking about. It was serious to me. I didn't think colleges should base applicants for scholarships or admittance on luck. My grade point average was higher than hers. I was involved in more clubs/service/extracurricular organizations than she was. As I thought about this, I realized the only main difference I could site. My friend was Hispanic.

Was I being narrow-minded? Was I being spiteful toward my friend because of what she had received? Was I angry and using race as an excuse to foster my anger? No-I was merely tryi

Wlliam Whitaker states in his book White Male Applicant, that he is "guilty of not accepting that equal employment opportunity claims by employers equates to equal opportunity for all their employment seekers". This quote fits very snugly many people's beliefs that so-called Equal Employment Opportunity is anything of the sort. Of the 171 federal affirmative action laws and regulations, all of them categorize people by the color of their skin. Almost 95 percent "ensure favorable results" based on minority status. Only 12 of the programs considered could be described as offering minorities a level playing field. This would evidence that although affirmative action is supposed to level the playing field, it tilts it toward the minorities, away from the white male. White males constitute a minority in our society, yet they are unfairly held back in favor of other minorities. In the book Counting by Race, William Bennett and Terry Eastland bring up a most interesting point. The civil rights movement began, they argue, with the original concept that "every person should be considered as an individual, not as a member of some racial or ethnic group to which he belongs" However, modern-day civil rights advocates have instead pushed for numerical equality. "They want to judge people not as individuals, but as members of groups and guarantee numerically equal results for each group"

The Supreme Court, supported by the general public, has declared that affirmative action has gotten to the point where it needs to either be seriously reformed or removed from the government books altogether. In two separate cases, one in 1989 and one in 1995, the Supreme Court ruled that a set-aside program giving preferential treatment to minorities is unconstitutional. This is supported by public opinion polls, which show the public agreeing with acts and initiatives to abolish set-aside programs.

Ever since affirmative action was started in the 1960's there has been constant debate about its validity. It has gotten to the point where minorities are given preferential treatment, especially in the areas of employment and education. Minorities still do earn less per dollar than the majority, but giving them preferential treatment, thereby denying the proverbial white male a fair chance is not the way to bring about equality.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Supreme Court, Utah University, Rights Initiative, San Francisco, Terry Eastland, Sub-continental Asian, Employment Opportunity, Harvey Gantt, Constitution Affirmative, Lyndon Johnson, affirmative action, supreme court, federal government, civil rights, economically disadvantaged, san francisco, preferential treatment, friend received, white male, racial discrimination, action affirmative action, evidence affirmative action, affirmative action affirmative, socially economically disadvantaged, 1995 supreme court,
Approximate Word count = 1985
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)