Straight from the source: students’ personal views on affirmative action

While I have never been in a situation where I have personally benefited from affirmative action, I believe that this policy is necessary to correct policies and practices that have systematically prevented minority groups from achieving their full potentials. Contrary to incorrect understandings of this policy, affirmative action does not take opportunities away, nor unduly uplift individuals. Instead, it levels the playing field for the oppressed to correct systems built against them. For example, criteria used to evaluate applicants by U.S. colleges include academic performance, children of alumni, and participating in varsity sports (track, swimming, skiing, etc). Students from predominantly minority communities tend to have fewer resources and are therefore unlikely to have alumni parents or to participate in the multitudes of extracurricular activities that are available to students at schools like Edina. Over time, these students will have less and less representation in these colleges. Affirmative action recognizes this bias and makes a special effort to be inclusive. It is a mischaracterization to describe this corrective policy as favoring a specific group.