Thread by @kiyahwillis

I'm a black woman who went to MIT. Here's why I'm anti-affirmative action 🧵

https://twitter.com/nikicaga/status/1826379510734028916

1. Affirmative Action is explicit bigotry, and I'm not a bigot. If someone works hard and achieves excellent grades, extracurriculars, and test scores, they should not be discriminated against or seen as an inferior applicant based on demographic, no matter their demographic.

2. When I was there, I saw kids from all demographics struggle to keep up with the workload. Many of them took more than four years to graduate. Some didn't graduate at all. I think many were likely admitted due to AA policies and were set up to struggle/fail from the start.

They would have had a better college experience elsewhere, but now some have loans they probably can't quickly repay because they don't have the degree they hoped to get. Many of them struggled with anxiety and depression because they were overwhelmed with the workload.

Many of the unqualified graduates went into jobs unrelated to their degrees because they weren't qualified or were burnt out. They didn't retain much of what they were taught in their classes because they put all their efforts into barely passing.

3. I want the best people going into STEM industries. I don't care about the sexual orientation of the person who built the bridge; I don't want it to collapse. I don't care about the skin color of my doctor; I want the one who knows the best about medicine and can cure me.

When you prevent the brightest, most talented, and most hard-working in any field from getting the best education, you prevent the most excellent people from making the most positive change in the world.

4. I want people to have healthy self-esteem. I don't know whether I was an affirmative action admit. I did well and graduated in less than 8 semesters, so I doubt I was unqualified, but I will never know if it was my hard work or my skin color that ultimately got me admitted.

When MIT or any of these colleges or activists focus on demographics instead of ability, qualified people question whether they are competent and deserving of what they have achieved, and ammunition is given to people who doubt the merit of their achievements.

To summarize: Affirmative action benefits no one

It's bad for bright students who miss opportunities because of their race, for unqualified students who struggle academically, for qualified students who doubt their abilities, and for society to miss out on its fullest potential