ipl-logo

Affirmative Action Hurts White People

845 Words4 Pages

“Affirmative Action may not be a perfect system, but there should be no doubt that it has endangered many successes. It has opened the doors of America’s most elite educational institutions to minority students, granting them unprecedented opportunities” (Ogletree 12). Thanks to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson a policy that prohibits employment and education discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex is offered today to those who suffer from said discriminations (A Brief History). Affirmative action has opened abundant openings for minorities, allowing the cycle of going to college to be passed down generations and provided job opportunities that otherwise would not be considered by most. Affirmative …show more content…

After all, it gives minorities what some would call, an unfair advantage. One point Anne Hull makes in her article “Affirmative Action Hurts White People” concerns readers that affirmative action is unconstitutional. She goes into detail by telling the story of a girl named Jennifer Gratz, a white applicant rejected from her dream college. Jennifer claimed that though she had worked extremely hard to have polished credentials, she fell short to a minority student with the same GPA and test scores all because of race. After being rejected, Gratz pursued a lawsuit against the University of Michigan, raising the question if affirmative action is still need in higher education (Hull 31). Gratz and Hull are not alone on the defense side of affirmative action. In his article “University Affirmative Action Admissions Policies Are Toxic,” Robert Cherry asserts that “affirmative action admissions policies disportionately accept students with lower-than-average test score and grades. As a result, they are not adequately prepared for the rigors of top-tier universities.” In making this comment, Cherry clearly favors for affirmative action to be taken out of higher education. He supports his argument with data that suggest that minorities are not performing as well as whites because some colleges lower their standards in order to accept more minorities. Implying that this only discourages minorities and puts them in situations where they can not reach their full potential. Both arguments make very good points, yet they seem to miss the big picture, which is that the benefits of affirmative action outweigh the downsides

Show More
Related

Supreme Court Case: Abigail Fisher V. University Of Texas

776 Words | 4 Pages

Up and until this point in time, the court has generally ruled that promoting educational diversity is in fact a compelling state objective, but in today’s America, educational diversity has been established and is thriving. In this day and age, using race as a factor in college admissions is not needed. The Fourteenth amendment ensures the equal protection of the law to each and every citizen. We may not discriminate in order to promote

Read More

Analyzing The Supreme Court Case Against The Lawfulness Of Affirmative Action

197 Words | 1 Pages

Affirmative action was designed by the federal government and seemed to be a strong tactic but there are many imperfections in this policy. For example, California vs Bakke is a famous court case based off of reverse discrimination. A white male by the name Allan Bakke was denied admission to The University of California medical school. Instead of picking Bakke the school accepted a less qualified black male because the school must accept at least 16 minorities out of 100 into the medical program. The university uses race as an aid to admit minorities and increase diversity instead of accepting well qualified individuals.

Read More

HBCU Research Paper

157 Words | 1 Pages

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States founded primarily for the education of African Americans. Prior to the mid-1960s, HBCUs were virtually the only institutions open to African Americans due to the vast majority of predominantly white institutions prohibiting qualified African Americans from acceptance during the time of segregation. As such, they are institutional products of an era of discrimination and socially constructed racism against African Americans (Joseph, 2013). Successfully, millions of students have been educated in spite of limited resources, public contempt, accreditation violations, and legislative issues. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss

Read More

Abigail Fisher Case

503 Words | 3 Pages

Hunter Johnson CRN 10774 Term Paper Political Actors are not just any elected officials, but they can be any organization, group, or person that has an influence on any political issue. In the Texas affirmative action case, many political actors are involved. Edward Blum runs a group who is working on ending affirmative action. He was along side Abigail Fisher helping her though this case. Another political actor was Justice Clarence Thomas.

Read More

Dealing With Bias In The SAT

1119 Words | 5 Pages

courses in college that have opened up my mind to the issue. The more information I learn about this issue, the more surprised I am that our society still exhibits bias, because as much as the United States preaches about equality, it appears as if society has segregation in minor ways. Although the debate between whether there are biased questions on the SATs or not seems to favor that there aren’t by popular opinions, there is still biased behavior occurring in school systems that prevent certain groups of students from getting the proper resources needed. Because I would like to work in an low-income area, which most likely would contain minorities, as a teacher I would make the effort to help those students get the sufficient help needed. This motivates me to become a part of the education field, because caring teachers are much needed in area like this.

Read More

Standardized Testing Bias

1523 Words | 7 Pages

At least four Supreme Court justices believe that affirmative action is unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts has said that “the way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”. This viewpoint offers no differentiation between “race consciousness” and “racism”, but is a quite common opinion. This sort of viewpoint is what may drive America towards class-based rather than race-based affirmative action. Because of the disparities in income and wealth, minorities are as likely as whites to benefit under a class-based policy.

Read More

College Arguments Against Affirmative Action

668 Words | 3 Pages

For many individuals, this may seem like an advantage, but for others, this is just another form of discrimination. Affirmative Action should not be a deciding factor on whether or not a student gets accepted to ensure that everyone gets an equal opportunity. Several of the students who take advantage of Affirmative Action often don't meet the requirements needed to be accepted into an institution. This allows the students who were admitted to receive a “heads up” just by means of being unrepresented.

Read More

Affirmative Action Related To The Civil Rights Movement

1045 Words | 5 Pages

For an example, that diversity in higher education provides an educational advantage for all students, both personally and intellectually (Affirmative action, ncsl.com). Even though this is in many ways true, the admission to one school should not be determined by the color of one’s skin or someones historical descent, but for the academic merits, and even though, it is very true that in average disadvantaged groups tend to grow up with less opportunities, there should be no preference, affirmative action should be applied by preparing students for higher education or to defend them for discrimination but not to give them preference. Shelby Steels, Ph. D. from the Santa Clara university, said that admitting poorly qualified students into universities will not only harm the better qualified ones, but it will also harm the lesser qualified ones by putting them in a position for which they are not prepared, or qualified (pardon the redundancy), and will end up dropping out (Shelby, 1992). This might not be the case for many subjects, but reality is that jobs and schools have requirements that are meant to be completed in order to successfully fulfill the ties required for the

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

175 Words | 1 Pages

In the US laws and policies were established to address extended history of discriminations against minorities. These laws and administrative practices were called affirmative action, which strived to equalize the disparity each individual must overcome in order to achieve his/her goals to offset challenges such as racism, sexism, prejudice that may arise, the undeniably factual and unfair disadvantages. The laws and guidelines included government and private sector programs that focus on access to education and employment, granting special consideration minorities and women. Some whites criticize affirmative action arguing the policies are contrary to discrimination.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

333 Words | 2 Pages

Affirmative Action, also known as Executive Order 10925, is a staple in the way that this country has handled race relations over the past 50 years. I see it as a necessary truth that many do not want to face: race plays a major role in every aspect of society, whether be it jobs, finances or education. Affirmative Action has played a major role in the United States’ educational system, as it has given many the opportunity that they may not have had it the law had not been created and upheld. Affirmative Action is the beautiful truth behind an ugly past.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

916 Words | 4 Pages

Affirmative Action by definition is “the practice of improving the educational and job opportunities of members of groups that have not been treated fairly in the past because of their race, sex, etc”. (Merriam Webster). Affirmative action was thought of as a remedy towards African Americans who have been discriminated against over generations. While Affirmative Action’s intentions are good, giving the minority a chance and helping them obtain a better life, it does not solve the problem with discrimination or promote equality in the workplace and education. Affirmative Action has only led to reverse discrimination, promotes biasing in colleges and workplaces, and contradicts Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of equality between races.

Read More

Examples Of Affirmative Action: The Illusion Of Racial Equality

254 Words | 2 Pages

Affirmative Action: The Illusion of Racial Equality In response to racial justice riots at universities around 1968, institutions started to enforce affirmative action—a mandate to favor members of minority groups in order to promote racial equality. In his autobiography, Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez argues against this policy, drawing from personal experience as a middle-class minority student conventionalized as the poster child of immigrant success. When affirmative action admitted lower-income minority students into college, many of them struggled to do well. Rodriguez blames this not on race, but on the inadequate primary and secondary education these students had received, stating “…the university officials who so diligently took

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

335 Words | 2 Pages

From the myriad of data acquired, we can safely conclude that affirmative action is indeed a flawed system. It is designed to rectify the effects of past societal discrimination against minorities and women. To its ardent critics it can’t hold a glass of water because there are just too many holes in the system. However, there is no perfect system out there to defend women and minorities as racism and discrimination are still commonplace in education and employment. Affirmative action enables equality and diversity while fosters innovation and competitiveness in high education and in business.

Read More

The Strength Of Affirmative Action

220 Words | 1 Pages

You did a good job on explaining about the affirmative action. Further, you provide the specific example on the affirmative minority groups is the women. I think this example have clearly defined the strength of the affirmative action. I agree with you that affirmative action is to the way to ensure the equivalent opportunity and access among people (Lecture 2). For the weakness of this action, I think you should add more information.

Read More

Affirmative Action Problem

197 Words | 1 Pages

The real problem with affirmative action is that minority groups are being stigmatized and treated differently because their success could be deemed as unearned. Also universities are admitting minority students so their campus can be “diverse” but aren’t putting in the effort to make sure these students are actually succeeding in college and graduating. Universities are admitting students who are not prepared for college, therefore the same students that just got admitted are not graduating. For example, 41% of Hispanics and 42% of blacks are required to take a remedial Math or English before entering a college level coarse compared to 30% of white student. The average college graduation rate for a blacks is 39.7% and the average rate for

Read More

More about Affirmative Action Hurts White People

Related Topics

Open Document