Mike Karwoski

Christian Ethics Midterm

3-19-2014

2. College is an important part of our education system today and is becoming a necessity for
future employment of generations to come. However, college admissions are the center of
discussion when it comes to potential students being admitted into specific universities and
colleges with one important issue being at the head of all discussion: race. I myself can
remember filling out my college applications for many different schools and I can remember that
there always was a section to select what race the individual filling out the application was. I
never understood why this particular box was relevant to the application process of college,
when I felt that admittance should solely be based off of the academic performance and
qualifications of the applicants. This brings us to the first major issue surrounding race and the
college admissions process. Many people feel that certain students are admitted into college
simply because they are minorities and colleges are looking to meet a certain quota to
intentionally diversify their campuses so that it appears they are justly and equally selecting
people of all races and backgrounds to attend their university. These beliefs that people hold in
regards to colleges accepting minorities into colleges over more qualified applicant shave led to
various court cases in the past such as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke in 1978,
Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003, and Fisher v. University of Texas in 2009. In all of these court
cases the major issue being examined was that less qualified students were being admitted into
colleges because schools were intentionally trying to meet their quota and intentionally diversify
their campuses rather than admit the most deserving candidates. Another issue that is
surrounding race and college admissions is that students are not receiving equal opportunities to
receive a higher level of education based on their ethnic backgrounds and the places they are
raised. Many people believe that children that are poor, of a minority race, and come from poor
living conditions do not have a chance at a quality education in comparison to their middle to
upper class white counterparts.
When it comes to the issue of race and college admissions, there are two ethical theories
that can approach this issue in different ways; rights theory and utilitarianism. To start off, rights
theory has two major components, we all have certain rights about how we live our lives and we
have the rights to the extent that we respect the rights of others. Rights theorists may look at the
issue and decide that we all as human beings have the right to higher education, thus we should
all have the same equal chance and right to be admitted into a school because our academic
achievements reflect that we are the best applicant for the school. This leads to another point
that a rights theorist could make, which would be that applicants should be seeking intrinsic
rewards for applying to college and applying for the right reasons. For example, applicants
shouldnt be applying to college so that in the future they will have a better job; rather they
should be applying because they value education and the opportunity to receive a higher level of
education. Rights theorists would approach this issue in a way where they strive to ensure that
every student has an equal opportunity to be admitted into any university simply because they
are the best qualified applicant, not because they are white or black, rich or poor, or have any
other outside factor contributing to the decision. A policy that they might recommend to a
college is one where applications do not ask the race or background of the applicants, rather the
applicants are picked solely based on their academic performance and achievements. The second
ethical theory that we can take a look from is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is basically the
greatest good for the greatest number of people, where the weighing of goods vs. bad is taken
into consideration. Taking a utilitarianism approach to the issue of race and college admissions,
utilitarian theorists may take an approach saying that the interests of all races must be taken into
consideration in regards to the admittance of applicants and that race should be considered in the
application process so that minorities as well as any applicant has a fair chance of getting
admitted. This goes back to the issue I brought up earlier about children coming from poor
backgrounds not having an equal chance to receive an education as a wealthier counterpart.
Utilitarian theorists would take an approach where all factors of an applicant are taken into
consideration, including race, and then basically they would exam if the good/positive qualities
of the applicant out-weigh the bad/negative qualities, thus resulting in either acceptance or denial
of the applicant. A policy that utilitarianism theorists might suggest for universities to use could
be one where a greater amount of students are admitted into the university, giving students that
have an unfair educational advantage growing up and equal chance to be admitted among all of
the other more qualified applicants. This policy would ensure that the top qualifying applicants
would be admitted into the university as well as the top performers of minorities and applicants
that come from lower socio-economic backgrounds that had a more difficult time receiving an
education that would put them in the position to be admitted into a college.
Race is a major issue in the world today as it has been for many years in the past and will
mostly likely be for many years in the future, especially when it comes to the issue of college
admissions. Hopefully in the future the process will become more just and race will not have to
be a factor in the decision of an applicant, rather students will be examined as simply all being
human beings and academic performance will be the sole decision factor.
3. Coming from a large city, Chicago, IL. I have experienced and am consistently reading about
crime and different issues surrounding the police and the community. One major topic that has
been a problem in the past and is still a reoccurring theme among the police and crime in general
is that of racial profiling. Racial profiling among police has three major components: officers
stops or search a person solely on the basis of their race, officers selectively stop and search
people of a certain race suspected of a crime, and officers use race as one factor in identifying
suspects based on witness accounts or other credible information. The issue that our society is
having with racial profiling and the police is that the police are using unfair assumptions and
accusations to search, question, and accuse members of races unfairly. Nine times out of ten a
police officer will stop a group of young black men walking down the street to see what they are
up to in comparison to a white group of men that may be walking on the other side of the road
simply based on the stereotype that the black males are more likely up to some trouble compared
to the white men. Since more members of minority groups are the ones being searched, more
hits or findings of illegal possessions are recorded for these groups of people, which
contributes to the stereotype that these minorities are the trouble makers and the ones committing
the crimes, when in reality whites are doing the same things, they just arent randomly stopped
and questioned as often as their black or Hispanic counterparts. This is the major issue with the
racial profiling of police; the contribution to the stereotype that minorities are the main
contributors to crime in our towns and cities. This unfair searching and racial profiling of
minorities stems back to one concept, racism. There are many different forms of racism that
contribute to and play a role in this controversy; prejudice or conscious racism, unconscious
racism, and structural racism. The first form of racism that may play a part in the racial profiling
by police is an underlying prejudice, or conscious racism, that they might have. A police offer
might have been raised in a home where his or her parents were blatantly racist and put it in their
childs head that people of a different race were no good and criminals, thus developing an
underlying prejudice in this child to hold with them as they grow up. As a result of this the
police officer may carry this prejudice with them into their work, thus causing them to racially
profile and bring race up as an issue when they choose to randomly question or search a
person. The next type of racism that can play a factor in a police officers racial profiling is
unconscious racism, which is where race as a part of our culture influences our thinking and
behavior without us being aware of or thinking about it. This could play a factor in the racial
profiling process because unconsciously a police officer could pull over a group of African
Americans that may look suspicious rather than the group of white teenagers that just robbed the
local convenient store of some candy, chips, etc. This could be in part that the officer has let
society shape his or her mind to unconsciously assume that a group of minorities is most likely
up to no good because of the statistical research that is given and the crime rates between whites
and minorities. This unconscious racism that police officers may have stems simply from the
statistics and information that they are presented with, even though it does reflect racism without
them knowing it. The last form of racism that could play a part in this issue is structural racism.
Structural racism could play a role in the issue of racial profiling based on the areas where
particular police officers work. If a police officer works in a rich, predominantly white area, and
he sees a black man dressed in baggy and dirty looking clothes he may be enticed to stop the
man and see what he is up to since he would appear to be out of his element, thus signaling to the
police officer that this black man is up to no good since he appears to be out of his element. The
same could be said for a white individual walking through the ghetto or a predominately black
area. A police officer may see this and ask the white person if they are lost or what they are up
to simply because it looks like they do not belong there and shouldnt be there whether it is for
their own safety or simply because they are in a bad area.
Racial profiling is an issue that not only police officers take part in, but many other
individuals as well. It is something that we must overcome as a society if we ever wish to fully
end racism and help grant equal rights for people of all races. The underlying reason for racial
profiling is racism that has stemmed from many years of unfair stereotypes and beliefs of
minorities. In the future hopefully we will be able stop racial profiling so that all people are
treated fairly, especially in regards to the law and the entire justice system.