Hey, you guys want to read my English speech?

[「tea.leaf」]

Notes: This speech takes a departure from my usual British spellings, because I go to an American school. It feels a bit too informal to me, but, then again, the assignment wasn't very specific. The conclusion also felt a bit too riot-inducing, so I'll need some help toning it down while still maintaining a sense of closure and a "call to action," as our curriculum says. Took me four hours to finish, which is probably too long. Feel free to dispute, if that's what you want.

 

Regarding Affirmative Action

 

Once upon a time, a Caucasian boy applied to college. He wasn’t particularly ambitious, but he wanted an education; he wasn’t particularly special, but he was well off. He was hopeful. With his parents’ and friends’ best regards, he crossed his fingers sent in his application package. Several months later, he peeked in his mailbox to discover a letter from his college. Eagerly, he ripped the envelope apart only to find a rejection letter. He was crushed. Devastated. Resentful. Loathing. Self-loathing. Confused. This is the fruit of affirmative action.

 

What is affirmative action, exactly? Affirmative action, in its technical definition, describes a plethora of programs, biased on the basis of race, ethnicity and/or gender, designed to promote diversity, such as equal opportunity employment programs, and so on. Here, affirmative action specifically refers to the college application process in the United States, wherein applicants are reviewed with their demographics in mind. Although race quotas are technically illegal, as ruled by the Supreme Court in Bakke v. Regents, 1978, diversity is encouraged. In blunt terms, schools are encouraged to accept applicants of minority demographics to create colorful classrooms.

 

The proponents of affirmative action argue that programs uphold the American ideals of social equality and justice, and help disadvantaged students gain a higher economical and social standing. In a sense, affirmative action is almost an embodiment social Darwinism. Like Rockefeller and Carnegie, social Darwinism’s hardest American believers, affirmative action makes resources more available and elevates the less fortunate to a more competitive level.

 

However, despite its best intentions, affirmative action is, at its core, a contradiction of the very ideals that it upholds. The existence of affirmative action implies that some demographics are, either naturally or by some other factor, inferior; else, these demographics would not require the assistance of these programs, and affirmative action would not exist. Although its surface seems to extend a helping hand, its core insults the capabilities and achievements of the minority applicants it tries to aid, an epitome of discrimination. Clarence Thomas, the only African-American Supreme Court Justice, and Ward Connerly, an African-American political activist largely credited with California’s Proposition 209 (which outlawed race and gender preferences in state employment and state university admissions), oppose affirmative action for exactly this reason. Affirmative action in the college application process must be abolished, because it advantages applicants based on factors that are generally irrelevant to said applicant’s performance and capabilities, academic or otherwise.

 

Ruling out his qualifications as a factor, the boy in the earlier story most likely lost his acceptance to a minority applicant, maybe an African American girl or a Native American boy. If their qualifications were relatively similar, why were the other applicants chosen over the boy? The only explanation is race and gender. As of 2008, Caucasians compose 79.8% of the United States’ population, African Americans 12.8% and Native Americans 1%. Assuming the gender split is 50/50, our protagonist belongs in a pool that’s 39.9% of the population, whereas his competitors, the African American girl, in 6.4%, and the Native American boy, in .5%. In comparison, the Caucasian boy is of no rarity, but his competitors are, and because schools are encouraged to maintain a diverse atmosphere, they were chosen over him. Schools’ acceptance figures tell the same tale. In 2005, MIT’s overall acceptance was 15.9%, Penn’s 21.2% and Harvard’s 10%; but MIT had a 31.6% acceptance rate for African Americans, Penn 30.1% and Harvard 16.7%. The African American girl had almost double the chance of our protagonist to enter MIT, world’s most prestigious engineering school, not because she had better qualifications, but because she was black and he was white. Affirmative action not only disrespects applicants’ capabilities, but it degrades them to collectibles; instead of objectively judging them as potential leaders, affirmative action treats applicants like stamps, taking them not for their value, but for prettying a portfolio.

 

The other major purpose of affirmative action is to encourage disadvantaged applicants to academically excel, and thus elevate them to a better socioeconomic status. However, this comes entirely at the expense of applicants of every other demographic. Affirmative action implicitly encourages and stresses academic performance disproportionately across demographics. To articulate this concept, let’s go back to our population figures. Because of affirmative action’s provisions, each applicant, instead of competing with all other applicants, now only competes with other applicants of the same demographic. Our protagonist, being a Caucasian boy, competes against 39.9% of the entire applicant pool, whereas the African American girl competes against 6.4% and the Native American boy against .5%. The Caucasian is under higher pressure, because he is competing against a significantly larger pool than the other two; to call them his competitors now would be almost incorrect. This effect is clearer in prestigious schools, where the applicant pools are demographically disproportionate to the population of the country. For example, schools like MIT and Harvard receive an alarmingly great number of Asian American applicants, but not so many African American applicants. The Asian Americans’ competition, in this case, is not the 2.25% pool implied by national population numbers, but probably something much, much larger. Although there are no numbers to explicitly display the massive stress on Asian American applicants, there are stories. It is not unheard of for Asian American applicants to commit suicide after being rejected from prestigious schools. He may believe he has failed and underperformed to his dream school’s stratospheric standards, but that may not be the case; there were just too many applicants in his same demographic. He may have been just as capable as the Caucasian or African American applicant that was chosen over him, maybe even more so, but affirmative action denied him the spot that his hard work rightfully earned him.

 

Affirmative action discredits academic performance over irrelevant factors and stresses applicants disproportionately. Its very existence contradicts the values upon which this country is established. In the land of the free and home of the brave, affirmative action injures the many and benefits the few. Disguised as a beacon of hope to the underprivileged, it is the ultimate epitome of specious treason against the populace. Call this social equality, because I don’t. Write to your congressmen and state legislature. Let it be known that we will not let this injustice stand, and in time we will have our own Proposition 206, and so be free of this righteous oppressor. Our protagonist would not have been rejected in vain.

[OMGAKITTY]

Well written. You don't source a lot of your stats though, and at least where I'm at, that's a requirement.

 

The only other possible issue I see is that you lean a little heavily toward male pronouns (Asian student soon becomes "he". )

Eh, good speech is good.

[~/Coolio Prime\~]

After reading over this, I'm glad that somebody else has noticed how extremely backwards "affirmative" action is.

[Dismal Euphony]

Well written. You don't source a lot of your stats though' date=' and at least where I'm at, that's a requirement.

 

The only other possible issue I see is that you lean a little heavily toward male pronouns (Asian student soon becomes "he". )

Eh, good speech is good.

[/quote']

 

Ugh. You beat me to everything. >.< I was going to point out the fact that most schools (at least the one I go to) require you to source your facts/statistics. I thought it was very well written and such.

[「tea.leaf」]

Well written. You don't source a lot of your stats though' date=' and at least where I'm at, that's a requirement.

 

The only other possible issue I see is that you lean a little heavily toward male pronouns (Asian student soon becomes "he". )

Eh, good speech is good.

[/quote']

 

The assignment didn't ask for sources, so I just grabbed them from WikiPedia.

 

Besides, t's kind of awkward to say (Berkshire, 231) while you're delivering it, right?

 

The Asian thing is because that scenario mostly applies to Asian men, so I'm just trying to accurate.

 

If I have time, I'll go back and dig up real numbers.

 

Thanks for taking your time to read it, though! x3

 

After reading over this' date=' I'm glad that somebody else has noticed how extremely backwards "affirmative" action is.

[/quote']

 

I could've had another page about how it entirely undermines the Civil Rights movement, undoing a century's worth of progress.

 

The assignment asked for about two pages, and I already doubled that. ._.;;

[OMGAKITTY]

Well written. You don't source a lot of your stats though' date=' and at least where I'm at, that's a requirement.

 

The only other possible issue I see is that you lean a little heavily toward male pronouns (Asian student soon becomes "he". )

Eh, good speech is good.

[/quote']

 

The assignment didn't ask for sources, so I just grabbed them from WikiPedia.

 

Besides, t's kind of awkward to say (Berkshire, 231) while you're delivering it, right?

 

The Asian thing is because that scenario mostly applies to Asian men, so I'm just trying to accurate.

 

If I have time, I'll go back and dig up real numbers.

 

Thanks for taking your time to read it, though! x3

 

You might want to double check with the teacher that you don't need source. Otherwise you could get anally screwed over by that.

[Dismal Euphony]

Well written. You don't source a lot of your stats though' date=' and at least where I'm at, that's a requirement.

 

The only other possible issue I see is that you lean a little heavily toward male pronouns (Asian student soon becomes "he". )

Eh, good speech is good.

[/quote']

 

The assignment didn't ask for sources, so I just grabbed them from WikiPedia.

 

Besides, t's kind of awkward to say (Berkshire, 231) while you're delivering it, right?

 

The Asian thing is because that scenario mostly applies to Asian men, so I'm just trying to accurate.

 

If I have time, I'll go back and dig up real numbers.

 

Thanks for taking your time to read it, though! x3

 

I guess you've got a point there. I was just assuming that you were required to submit a hard-copy as well.

[「tea.leaf」]

Well written. You don't source a lot of your stats though' date=' and at least where I'm at, that's a requirement.

 

The only other possible issue I see is that you lean a little heavily toward male pronouns (Asian student soon becomes "he". )

Eh, good speech is good.

[/quote']

 

The assignment didn't ask for sources, so I just grabbed them from WikiPedia.

 

Besides, t's kind of awkward to say (Berkshire, 231) while you're delivering it, right?

 

The Asian thing is because that scenario mostly applies to Asian men, so I'm just trying to accurate.

 

If I have time, I'll go back and dig up real numbers.

 

Thanks for taking your time to read it, though! x3

 

You might want to double check with the teacher that you don't need source. Otherwise you could get anally screwed over by that.

 

Definitely will.

 

Tomorrow's the first draft, so I'll clarify.

[Felix Culpa]

Well written, indeed. Good read. Honestly, half the members who post will just say "tl;dr" or something like that. And then agree with someone's opinion.

[Mister Sir]

After reading up on how to generally write a speech, I'll be honest; I liked it as soon as read the first paragraph.

 

Will read up a bit more in detail when I don't have to do other sh!t.

[Psycho Shocker Android]

Very good. If you don't like reading (Berkshire, 231) you can use exponents for your references and list them at the end of your essay. Just make sure your teacher isn't an african american woman or something like that, specially if she went to one of those school.

[「tea.leaf」]

Very good. If you don't like reading (Berkshire' date=' 231) you can use exponents for your references and list them at the end of your essay. Just make sure your teacher isn't an african american woman or something like that, specially if she went to one of those school.

[/quote']

 

I made sure not to offend my audience.

[CeDeFiA]

tl;dr

[Felix Culpa]

Well written' date=' indeed. Good read. Honestly, half the members who post will just say "tl;dr" or something like that. And then agree with someone's opinion.

[/quote']

 

tl;dr

 

I warned you leaf. I told you. CeDeFiA is just trying to get extra post count...

[CeDeFiA]

Well written' date=' indeed. Good read. Honestly, half the members who post will just say "tl;dr" or something like that. And then agree with someone's opinion.

[/quote']

 

tl;dr

 

I warned you leaf. I told you. CeDeFiA is just trying to get extra post count...

 

It's the truth.

 

I don't feel like reading a speech at 7 am.

[Mister Sir]

Well written' date=' indeed. Good read. Honestly, half the members who post will just say "tl;dr" or something like that. And then agree with someone's opinion.

[/quote']

 

tl;dr

 

I warned you leaf. I told you. CeDeFiA is just trying to get extra post count...

 

It's the truth.

 

I don't feel like reading a speech at 7 am.

 

Then don't read the OP.

 

And don't post.

[Cyber Altair]

Yo' tea, I'mma real hapy for you and I'mma let you finish but Martin L. King had one of the best speeches OF ALL TIME.

[Womi]

I'm in a hurry, so I don't have the time to read the whole thing right now. D:

I'll read it later, ok?

[Mehmani]

96% of children at my school are Black, 2% Asian and 1% White. I am White.

 

Recently, the Head Boy was decided on Academic progress instead of sporting. It was a competition between a White boy with A*s in 12 of his GCSEs and As in 1. The Black boy had all As.

 

The Black boy won. Why? 'Positive Discrimination'.

I commend you on your speech.

[Cyber Altair]

I'm in a hurry' date=' so I don't have the time to read the whole thing right now. D:

I'll read it later, ok?

[/quote']

 

And so you had to come in here, post and leave?

 

What people do to raise their post count.

[OMGAKITTY]

Yo' tea' date=' I'mma real hapy for you and I'mma let you finish but Martin L. King had one of the best speeches OF ALL TIME.

[/quote']

 

You have babies with me now, yes?

[CeDeFiA]

Well written' date=' indeed. Good read. Honestly, half the members who post will just say "tl;dr" or something like that. And then agree with someone's opinion.

[/quote']

 

tl;dr

 

I warned you leaf. I told you. CeDeFiA is just trying to get extra post count...

 

It's the truth.

 

I don't feel like reading a speech at 7 am.

 

Then don't read the OP.

 

And don't post.

 

Yes, your post was totally on topic too.

[Cyber Altair]

Yo' tea' date=' I'mma real hapy for you and I'mma let you finish but Martin L. King had one of the best speeches OF ALL TIME.

[/quote']

 

You have babies with me now, yes?

 

Sure, why not. Just wait in the line.

[Dark]

Well written' date=' indeed. Good read. Honestly, half the members who post will just say "tl;dr" or something like that. And then agree with someone's opinion.

[/quote']

 

tl;dr, I agree with the first poster in this thread, after tea.leaf.

 

It was a bit long, but since it's an essay, it technically should be. I didn't read all of it, but with the amount I did read, it's funny how people think whites have the advantage, when in fact black women have more of a college acceptance rate than white males.

[Yasu]

Awesome :3

I'm not going to let my cousin win at Tetris (She'll do it anyway).