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Originally imposed in 1965, affirmative action is a set of public policies designed to compensate for past racism and help alleviate the racism that still exists. Ironically it does just the opposite. With affirmative action in place, colleges are forced to discriminate in favor of racial minorities in their admissions. Thus, discrimination is being used to combat discrimination. Affirmative action creates a situation analogous to that of George Orwell's Animal Farm, in which the under qualified …

…between these two friends and between the white male and any other minorities that he might associate with. All in all, the logic behind affirmative action is clearly skewed. If preferences must be given, then they should be given on the basis of socioeconomic status, not on the basis of race. However, the true solution to discrimination is to discard preferences altogether, and not allow colleges to know the race or gender of their applicants.