Blue text will represent an argument against race-based affirmative action, and the regular black text will represent advocating for. Race-based affirmative action degrades meritocracy by introducing a factor to the admissions process which is beyond the applicant’s control. We should not perform race-based affirmative action for students for the same reason we should not perform height-based affirmative action for basketball players. If the issue is privilege of wealth, then why not just perform affirmative action based on socioeconomic status? Nearly all elite universities use race-based affirmative action, so if I want to attend a prestigious college, I have no choice other than to agree to their guidelines — including race-based affirmative action.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 29, 2020 18:33 UTC