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Affirmative Action Pros And Cons

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Today in the world there are many cases of affirmative action. Affirmative action is a policy that favors those who have suffered from discrimination. This happens mostly in education and employment. President Johnson had passed the bill which was first introduced by President Kennedy. President Johnson passed the bill to redress discrimination that had persisted in spite of civil right laws and constitutional guarantees. The main purpose was for a fair access to employment and education. Grutter v. Bollinger which occurred in 2003 was a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court upheld the admission policies of the University of Michigan Law School. The University of Michigan Law School had a high interest in promoting class diversity. The court held that a race-conscious admissions process that may favor “underrepresented minority groups”. This also took into account that many other factors evaluated on an individual basis for every applicant that did not amount to a quota system that would …show more content…

Women had experienced a sexist society for so long when the bill passed they took advantage of it and statistics showed. This made the purpose of affirmative action successful. Programs of such are designed as temporary measures to increase the employment and educational opportunities of qualified women and minorities by giving them preferences in hiring or a promotion. African American and Women participation in the work force had increased by 50 percent. The percentage of African American holding manager positions had jumped. Before the affirmative action bill was passed things of such would not be in motion. There was more positive than negative in the policy. There is some bad in the policy when you put it into perspective. This bill being passed upset a lot of people and was the reason a lot of people did not get hired or the promotion they were

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1289 Words | 6 Pages

The benefits of Affirmative Action are meant to level the opportunities for African Americans in all aspects of American life. After Kennedy’s implementation, President Johnson and his administration extended Affirmative Action benefits to more groups of people in the promotion of social equality throughout the United States. With Affirmative Action still in effect today, the United States of America more than remedied the initial loopholes of federal benefits with the first drafts. To continue to further extend federal benefits for Affirmative Action today could completely reverse the original scenario in time and create even more inequalities within the American political system. Affirmative Action helped the remedy the disadvantage African Americans faced and create equal opportunities for more social groups.

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1679 Words | 7 Pages

Adaptability is one key feature that humans have throughout their lives that separates us from other animals. Many people have a hard time adapting to certain situations without any aids so the introduction of newer technologies gives more people the ability to adapt to different situations at hand. Cathy Davidson brings this up in her essay, “Project Classroom Makeover” where she talks about the implementation of technology in the classroom and the power that computers have on the development of individuals. She also discusses mainly how technology has advanced with her program showing how technologies can be applied in different ways. Daniel Gilbert furthers the points about how people can adapt to different situations in his essay “Immune to Reality.”

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Katznelson’s argument that affirmative action policies were enacted with purposeful, deliberate discrimination is convincing. Namely, he considers the historical context that would have shaped Americans at the time and swayed their opinions. For example, Katznelson references the Civil War and the end of slavery, and how these events shaped the attitudes of key players like the Southern Democrats, which would then result in the faulty policies that perpetuated affirmative action’s favoritism of whites. His evidence is sufficient as well. Katznelson highlights the trend of Southern Democrats interfering in affirmative action policies and the footholds they had in specific acts.

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President, John F. Kennedy, Jr. signs an Executive Order using little known measure called affirmative action as an attempt to accommodate the cry for equality in 1961. Federal contractors were required to treat job applicants equally despite race. Four years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson issues another executive order expanding on the affirmative action and making it a requirement for all Federal contractors and sub-contractors. These executive orders have evolved over the years and have created programs that accommodate people of all race, creed and color.

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Since the very group of words “affirmative action” is in total contradiction with the amendment fourteen which guarantees people equal protection under the law. But coming to affirmative action, we have to remark the sad history behind it, which is once again to disadvantage a group for another one. Therefore we can clearly say that affirmative action is not only illegal but it is also unconstitutional since it violates clearly the fourteenth amendment. Not only that, we need also to notice that affirmative action goes against this American ideal which is equal opportunity, the ability for someone to use whatever wealth and/or talent he/she has to reach his/her fullest potential. Due to affirmative action, we will notice down in the paper how affirmative action prevents people to use their fullest

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674 Words | 3 Pages

If the equitable measure at the core of the program is constructed on the needs of the American instead of the race of the American, then the ostensible hurdle regarding Affirmative Action has been solved. What we would then have is a solution that aids the individuals that make up the melting pot of American society that are at a disadvantage, regardless of biological or cultural difference. In today’s world, economical oppression makes us similar. This reform to Affirmative Action is compensation based on the individual, instead of on focused groups, as it was when it was created, which also speaks to the idealistic fibers we find in the Constitution. Justice will still play a part in identifying where fair share is needed the most because the focus on the individual will highlight the people that are at a

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Discrimination, no matter if it is towards whites, blacks, or any other ethnicity, should never be allowed. This makes affirmative action an unfair system that should be abolished (Economist). Furthermore, affirmative action breaks the Civil Rights Act of 1964, while also not following the 14th amendment, both of which state that no person should be given less rights than others (Britannica). It not only hurts those with a harder time getting in, but also those in the minority groups, as they are not fully prepared for what is to come. This causes their grades to drop, ultimately compelling them to either drop out or be unable to graduate.

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Affirmative action started during the Civil Rights Movement, when President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925 that would create the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, “comprised of representatives from the major federal agencies and the public, and included a new nondiscrimination clause for all government contracts” (Sewell, 2004, p. 357). This committee would be federally funded for their projects, such as affirmative action, to make sure that all hiring and employment policies were free of discrimination. Eventually, these affirmative action practices were adopted by colleges and universities. While in its beginning, many people saw affirmative action as a form of reverse discrimination, but today it is one of the most debated topics because many people view it as unfair. This is because those jobs or positions may not be going to the most qualified candidate for that job or position, and some feel that they are being penalized just because of their

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“Civil rights are rights that constitute free and equal citizenship and include personal, political, and economic rights” (Altman). Discrimination is defined as denying someone these rights based off of race, sex, ethnicity, etc. Affirmative action was put into place to ensure equal representation and fair treatment of minorities in college admission policies. Since it began, it has increased the number of minorities admitted into colleges and has made it harder for average white Americans to be admitted. Many have begun to argue reverse discrimination, particularly after the Bakke case.

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Every American should be wary of any instance in which the government distinguishes between people based on race, with bad or good motivations. But in its ruling, the 5th Circuit offered the justices, several good reasons to side with the university" (editorial board 2). They supports that what the court had decided, they think UT Austin’s modest program is a prime example of the sort that should survive judicial scrutiny. The Washington Post also points out "The university’s opponents charge that the affirmative-action policy is unnecessary. The top 10 percent program has pulled in minority students" (editorial board 4).

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The purpose of affirmative action was to create a fairness to all applicants. It has created an unfair

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Debates over racial discrimination have been going on since the beginning of America’s existence as a land of freedom. Today, arguments over racial microaggressions and affirmative action continue to plague our country. Affirmative action is a hotly contested racial consideration program that favors certain minorities in college admissions and the workplace. Some argue that any consideration of race discriminates against the majority and violates the Equal Protections Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, while others contend that it takes into consideration the disadvantages suffered by typically lower-class minority families and makes up for past discrimination against minorities. By upholding affirmative action, the Supreme Court ignored data

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751 Words | 4 Pages

“Affirmative action is not about quotas. It’s an attempt to open more opportunities for women and people of color through aggressive recruitment and outreach greater access to academic institutions and the workplace and not exclude people on the basis of race or gender.” (Holhut3) Actions or policy favoring those individuals who are subject to discrimination particularly in relation to employment or education is called Affirmative Action. Although affirmative action is not necessarily a form of equal treatment it is a form of fair treatment. Programs that attempt to break down the wall of segregation that excluded racial minorities and women from workplace and education include quotas, minority scholarships, reverse discrimination, preferential hiring and diversity have all been linked to affirmative action.

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It also led to the development of affirmative action programs that aimed to provide opportunities for people who had been

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After providing a basic definition for the concept of affirmative action, the National Conference of State Legislatures provides a thorough description of the historical background of the concept. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, affirmative action is an outcome of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. The idea first arose nationally in 1961 when President Kennedy used the term in an Executive Order which established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, which is now referred to as the Equal Employment Commission (Hultin,

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