Affirmative action is pretty much blatantly discriminatory. Colleges want to build a "diverse" student body so that there's a melting pot in classes. Which does have its perks, since generally a full class of people born and raised in America will have more homogeoneous opinions (and thus, might be more dull) than a class with someone who grew up in Turkey and another who grew up in South Africa. Of course, a Turkish person and an African American might have the exact same opinions.

So...I don't think it's a matter of defending minorities, nor has it ever been. It does actually provide a different experience in college. At least, theoretically.

And whether or not it's racist simply depends on what you consider racist. Under my definition, it isn't, though it is still discriminatory.

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"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us." ~Socrates