Racism is the Cause of the "Badge of Inferiority"

Opponents of affirmative action argue that affirmative action programs stigmatize under-represented minority students. Yet the “badge of inferiority” was applied to black, Latino/a and Native American students before affirmative action programs were won by the civil rights movement, and, most tellingly, has intensified on selective campuses in the states where affirmative action programs have been banned. It derives from the prejudice that necessitates affirmative action programs in the first place. Minority students at UC Berkeley and UCLA report much higher levels of hostile campus climate (the sense that they must constantly justify their presence on those campuses) now than they did before the ban on affirmative action in California .