Comment by dyauspitr

The very real downside is if you just provide equal opportunity then you would still end up with an all white/East Asian/Indian class. You can argue that this is fair and meritocratic and you would be right but I believe there are a lot of people that see value in affirmative action that makes classrooms look more like the racial distribution of the country and provides an easy step up for traditionally poor/downtrodden communities to improve themselves. Affirmative action isn’t only an American thing btw, it’s in China, South Korea, India etc. as well.