Wherever you go in life, you should strive to get there based on your own merit and qualifications.

Nobody should be a token minority. Nobody should be a statistic to fulfill a diversity requirement. And nobody should be a bubble to fill in on a list of race options.

Whomever you are and wherever you come from, your race does not define you or your abilities.

This is why as a woman, a liberal and a person of color, I agree with Michigan’s recent decision to reinstate their affirmative action ban at colleges and universities, which eliminates race from admissions considerations.

Affirmative action is an ineffective way to combat inequality and implies that minorities don’t have the merit to get ahead on their own.

The fact that Americans are so worried about discriminating that they needed to implement a specific program to make sure they don’t discriminate is a problem in itself. And the fact that we think affirmative action is the solution to dispel racial disparities in poverty, education and employment is an even bigger one.

At its heart, there is nothing wrong with the ideals of affirmative action — to ensure equal representation of all people in the United States. However, if our country really wants to help bridge gaps between the disadvantaged and the privileged, we need to focus on improving the state of inner-city schools, our country’s high poverty and low literacy rates, rather than just fulfilling diversity requirements.

For example, from the time Martin Luther King Jr. was active in the 1960s until now, conditions for disadvantaged African-Americans in Chicago haven’t improved very much or at all. In 1960, the poverty rate for African-Americans in Chicago was 29.7 percent. As of 2011, it was 34.1 percent. For whites in 2011, the poverty rate was 10.9 percent. In 2012, the unemployment rate of African-Americans in Chicago was 19.5 percent, compared to 8.1 percent for whites. 

Clearly this demonstrates that there is a disadvantage for minorities in the United States, however, I do not think affirmative action effectively addresses the various problems that exist among minorities.

Even though racial preference is being given to minorities over the majority through affirmative action, it is still a judgment based on race, and in that way, it is reflective of unfair discriminatory practices.

Attempts to “diversify” universities, for example, sends the message that people from different races can’t get into accredited programs based on their skills, and need some special preference or help along the way.

A desire for racial diversity also implies that the differences that are important to uphold are physical and based off of color and culture, rather than what is on the inside.

When somebody is given a preference because of their race, the minority group they happen to belong to automatically overshadows their individual accomplishments and qualifications, and the focus is shifted to the color of their skin.

I have heard multiple people accuse minorities in accredited programs of only getting there because of their race.

This is a problem because rather than acknowledging the intelligence among different groups of people, many just assume that minorities get free passes. As a result, this discredits a minority’s intellect and achievements.

If we want to ensure that minorities don’t miss out on opportunities the majority receives, here’s a fancy idea: don’t discriminate between different types of people.

Not taking a person’s race into consideration when figuring out admissions should mean two things: not accepting them just because of their race, but also not rejecting them for that same reason.  

Affirmative action draws more divisions between minorities and the majority and undoes what Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned — a color-blind society. If we keep paying attention to what we perceive makes us different, we can never be equal.  

Although we are still a long way from such a romantic ideal, giving anyone preference based on anything other than skill is a far cry from an equal United States.

Merely looking for race as a qualification isn’t the right way to deal with unequal opportunity, and is not a solution to inequality, but a cover-up.

Minorities do not possess any less intelligence or talent than the majority where they’d need special treatment to get ahead. It is so much easier to offer choice minorities a place at a university instead of addressing the deeper institutional issues that exist among minorities. 

If we want to help the oppressed, we need to bridge the huge gaps between the advantaged and disadvantaged rather than only focusing on fulfilling diversity quotas.

Sehar is a junior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Nimatod.