Affirmative action remains direly necessary in the United States to correct the imbalance of opportunity faced by people of color and to allow economically-beneficial upward mobility.

The case currently facing the Supreme Court — that of Abigail Fisher and her denial from the University of Texas — threatens to tear down this vital institution before it has finished doing its job.

To say that affirmative action is no longer necessary is to say people of color are no longer at a disadvantage in our society, an assertion that could not be more false. In fact, the median wealth of white households in the United States is still 20 times that of black households, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

One of the tenets of the American dream is upward mobility, defined as the rising from a lower social class to a higher one. However, people of color cannot access the American dream because of systematic discrimination.

While black people represent 14 percent of the population, they make up less than 1 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. Years of racism influence these numbers, and repealing affirmative action would only stagnate upward mobility and make the upper class even more overwhelmingly white.

“Color-blindness” does not work. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, black people are half as likely to get a job offer as white people presenting identical qualifications, and black people with clean records do no better in searching for low-wage work than white people with felony convictions.

Though quota systems disappeared years ago, removing race from college admissions would force schools to ignore a key factor in the lives of their students and an obstacle to their success.

The argument that affirmative action constitutes reverse racism is frankly ridiculous. Affirmative action is but a slight counterbalance to centuries of oppression and discrimination — nowadays often unconscious discrimination — faced by people of color.

The United States undoubtedly has work to do to achieve a system of equal opportunities, but the answer does not lie in affirmative action.

In the current Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas, discussion on affirmative action focuses on acceptance into universities across the country. The universities solve their lack of diversity by admitting students based on race, completely ignoring the value of merit.

Minority students may get accepted in place of a more qualified white student. The issue with motivation and success of students cannot be linked to race. Any student who lacks a decent work ethic and success rate will not fit well in a competitive university.

In the Supreme Court case Grutter v. University of Michigan Law School in 2003, Barbara Grutter was denied admittance even though she held an acceptable GPA and adequate test scores. She filed a suit that the decision process used by the university was in violation of the 14th Amendment.

The conflict created an idea of reverse racism, where universities reject qualified white students simply because they do not belong to an underrepresented minority.

If a university accepts a group of students because of their race, it creates a stereotype that everyone in that racial group must be unable to succeed without special allowances.

Universities in California do not allow affirmative action, but instead open more opportunities and financial aid to those classified with a lower economic standing. These classes tend to be minority and lack of financial aid causes hesitation when applying to universities.

The United States still has widespread problems with discrimination, but affirmative action cannot be the solution. This outdated idea creates more problems than it solves. Much better solutions are out there, such as increasing financial aid. These solutions just need to be put into place by universities.