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The first rationale in favor of affirmative action is correcting for bias in standardized tests. It is believed that African and Mexican student score lower than a compared white students. Because of this a student who gets one score in a more diverse community and school and another student who gets the same school but when to an elite private school will be weighted and judged differently. The second rationale in favor of affirmative action is the belief in compensating for past wrongs. This action says that because there have been past wrongs that have caused and heightened racism they should be given preference in certain situations as a way of repayment. The third rationale in favor of affirmative action is the idea of promoting diversity. This affirmative action is more about helping those in minority groups have a chance to get to a “higher” class in social standards by giving them a leg up when they may not have had that opportunity before. This action also speaks to the idea that it is beneficial to have a racially diverse student body rather than having only the same backgrounds.
An objection to the second rationale which is the idea of compensating for past wrongs is that those who are getting the benefit of the compensation were not directly affected so the benefit does not go to the people who suffered the extremeness of what occurred in history. This is an objection as those that are getting the benefit of this affirmation are primarily middle-class African American teens who are getting a benefit just because of their race. There are two common objections to the third rationale, the idea of promoting diversity. The first objection is about the practicalness of the policies of affirmative action. People believe that because there are affirmative actions it will only heighten the presence and idea of race and seeing people by their race, especially those of minority backgrounds. This objection comes from the idea that affirmative action can cause many problems and heighten tensions as it’s not an equal unbiased system, instead, race is having a big effect. The second objection to promoting diversity affirmative action is, that race being involved in the admission decision is unfair. This is an objection as to many it seems unfair that a student who has better grades and qualifications is objected to because another student who has worse grades and not as good capabilities is a minority.
A utilitarian would not think affirmative actions are necessarily bad as long as they are promoting the overall welfare for the most amount of people. In the case of fairness that would not be a utilitarian objection as a utilitarian will be more focused on how it affects the overall community. I think based on the idea of campus diversity a utilitarian may be for affirmative action if it is proven that diversity promotes overall welfare on campus. Libertarians, Kantians and Rawlians would all have a similar agreement that if race is what is being used as the deciding factor in admission to college they would not think that is fair or just.
Ronald Dworkin's defense of affirmative action is that it does not violate anybody’s individual rights. Dworkin argues that many reasons a university or program selects applicants are not based on one's control so why is it unfair that race affects the choice? Dworkin goes on to agree with the first action on how there is a disadvantage for minorities when it comes to standardized tests so it is only fair that when it comes to the process of admissions that race is thought of. Dworkin also defends his argument that a university decides how to define what they are looking for when it comes to a study body and that is how applicants are decided upon. Dworkin because no student has the right or entitlement to be admitted anywhere based on their grades. In Dworkin's spin admittance to a university is determined based on the university and its mission statement.
Dworkin talks about how a university defines its mission statement about its campus and the goals of there campus. Dworkin believes that no university should create its mission statement in a way that will benefit one type of student above another in any way. The university mission statement is what can tell an applicant if they have the ability and opportunity to be admitted if they meet the standards better than fellow applicants. This is where Dworkin argues that just because a student may be at the top of their class they have no right to think they should automatically be admitted somewhere if they do not meet the university mission statement better than others who are applying. When it comes to university defining their goals and mission statements any way they please Dworkin believes, that all universities have their own way of defining their mission statements. Some universities may look for students based on grades and qualifications while others may look for things such as a diverse campus. Based on a university mission statement that is how applicants can judge if they have more and better qualities to get into one university than another student may have.
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