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Affirmative Action Pros And Cons

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The issue of affirmative action, here in the United States, is arguably one of the most controversial subjects in today’s society. This issue has also been known to be one of the least understood concepts as well, causing much debate and a divided nation. There are different opinions out there on whether affirmative action is really helping America put the past behind them when it comes to discrimination or is it simply violating American core values. What is affirmative action? Affirmative action is ‘an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination’ It ensures companies, universities and other high cooperation’s to establish programs that …show more content…

A lawsuit was filed and eventually made it to the US Supreme Court in which they found the admission policy violated the Equal Protection Clause Fourteenth Amendment of Gratz and Hamacher. Prior to this case, most colleges and universities stated diversity is an integral component to a successful institution. They weren 't really sure how far they could push this issue during the admission process as it was considered a gray area. The US Supreme Courts decision in the University of Michigan 's case clarified this gray area on affirmative action policies. The university of Michigan ended up "banning" Affirmative Action for minorities. A lawsuit then resulted, and it was held in Supreme Court. A 6-2 vote from the court system "backed" the University of Michigan for their ban of affirmative action. This was a very controversial lawsuit, and was followed by many. Minorities attending the University of Michigan have dwindled heavily over the years since …show more content…

I am hopeful that affirmative action will be a way of the past soon enough. Diversity is important and does have its place. I do see the need to include different races/ ethnicities/ sexes in one 's team of employment. I do believe that the applicants should never be hired based on only these factors. They should meet the standards that everyone else must meet. Any hiring procedure other than this creates animosity among the employees. My friend who is a Cambridge Police officer told me about an incident were he observed ‘equal opportunity’ in play. He said during the swim test portion of the physical testing, all applicants were instructed to jump into a pool and swim two laps back and forth. Applicants were told that they would be timed and the scores would be a part of the application. Basically anyone at this point that could not swim back and forth would be disqualified. He observed a minority that was holding onto the side of the pool because he could not swim. One of the instructors told him, ‘I don 't care what you do but you need to get from one side of the pool to the other’. I was surprised when he told me this because officers pretty much perform the same job responsibilities, so if a potential cop cannot swim like any other cops, why would he/she get the job since they cannot perform

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SUMMARY In this landmark case Allan Bakke, a white applicant to the University of California, Davis Medical School, sued claiming his denial of admission on racial grounds was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The standing rule at the time was that race may be a factor in determining admission to educational institutions; however it cannot be the sole determining factor. FACTS OF THE CASE The University of California, Davis Medical School had been reserving 16 spots in each class out of 100 for disadvantaged minorities.

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In 2008, Abigail Fisher, a white female, applied for admission at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1997, Texas passed legislation which guaranteed all students who graduate in the top 10% of Texas’ graduating class, admission to all Texas state-funded universities, regardless of other factors. Fisher did not qualify for Texas’ “Top 10%” with a GPA of 3.59 and an SAT score of 1180, but applied for general admission in the top 12% of her class. At the University of Texas, about 75% of admissions are comprised of students who qualified as Texas’ “Top 10%”, and 25% of admissions are based on several factors including, but are not limited to, grade-point average, extracurricular activities, and race. When Fisher was denied admission, she enrolled

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The Supreme Court made a mistake when they decided with the University of Texas; no college should take in race as a factor when selecting applications of students. In 2007, two female high school students applied to the University of Texas; one of the girls being Miss Abigail N. Fisher. Abigail was a caucasian, in the top 12% of her school at Stephen Austin High School, but she was denied by the University of Texas along with a friend of her’s. However,

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Ira Katznelson is the author of When Affirmative Action Was White, a historical analysis of the history of affirmative action and racial inequality in the United States of America. Katznelson takes a definitive approach to the history of legislation and inequalities and prepares the reader initially with his title. Katznelson’s argumentative position and approach to the title of his book makes the reader question about affirmative action for white Americans, but in reality what Katznelson means by his title, When Affirmative Action Was White, is more based on the social programs and federal grant opportunities that were created and provided to Americans during the Roosevelt and Truman administration. Katznelson argument encompasses historical

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Fisher, but they held the the Court of Appeals did not hold the University’s admission policies to a standard of strict scrutiny so the judgement was incorrect. In previous judicial precedent in cases dealing with minority admissions, the Court has held that they are reviewable under the fourteenth amendment, these such cases must be held to a standard of strict scrutiny to determine whether the policies are precisely tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest. If the policy does not meet this standard, then race can not be considered in any admissions process. The Court stated the it was the job of the reviewing court to verify that the University policy in question was necessary to achieve a more diverse student body and the any race-neutral alternative would not achieve the same level of diversity. The Supreme Court said the lower courts did not conduct a sufficient strict scrutiny examination in this case.

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In Regents of University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court ruled that a university 's use of racial "quotas" in its admissions process was unconstitutional, but a school 's use of "affirmative action" to accept more minority applicants was constitutional in some circumstances. " The college was asked to at least consider blacks in the admittance of college and they were asked to not use quotas in the admission

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Grutter V. Bollinger Research Paper 2 Abstract Barbara Grutter (plaintiff) which is a resident of Michigan who was denied admissions into the University of Michigan Law School. Lee Bollinger (defendant) was president of the University of Michigan. Grutter filed this suit because the University had discriminated against the basis of race. Supreme Court ruled that the use of affirmative action in school admissions is constitutional if it treats race as some factor.

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In 1949, an African American man named George McLaurin was admitted in the University of Oklahoma to its doctoral program. However, he was required to sit separately from rest of the students in the class, eat at a different time and table from white students. All of these unusual actions had some adverse effects on his academic pursuits. McLaurin appointed Thurgood Marshall to advocate this case this case which went to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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The Civil Rights Act led to Affirmative actions in which it ensured that victims of past discrimination would have an advantage in finding jobs, job promotions, and special consideration for admission to college and universities (Mullane, 1993, p. 237). However,

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This subsequently led to a change in affirmative action measure to include

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However, you really wonder that if there was no affirmative action, would the goal of minorities having an equal opportunity be achieved and is this just a game of race? It sure does seem like so. One reason to ban affirmative action is because it truly favors one race over the other. As stated in “Affirmative Action: Overview”, it argues that those who oppose this action believe that it “causes a form of reverse discrimination by [preferring] one group over another, based on racial preference rather than academic achievement”, which serves unconstitutional in a way by providing advantages to the minority and defeats the purpose of what America established in the past to make everyone equal.

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It is there to protect you but it is lopsided in the public eye. In the past years, affirmative action has been mostly used on admissions to a university. California voted in 1996 to get rid of race as being a factor to be admitted to a university. In 2008, Abigail Fisher took her case of not being admitted to The University of Texas

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Affirmative action has become obsolete in today’s society. Affirmative action is an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women; also: a similar effort to promote the rights or progress of other disadvantaged persons (Merriam-Webster, 2011). Today’s affirmative action will demoralize the very concepts that the policy was implemented to uphold: those of equality for all people regardless of color and discrimination. This policy supports racial multiplicity at the price of distinction, impartiality and experience; it also follows the line of reverse discrimination and sexual bias against white men (Reyna, Tucker, Korfmacher, & Henry, 2005).

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According to the dominant theory the affirmative action was firstly introduced to deal with two types of social disruption in the 1960s as campus protests and urban riots in the North. However, this article is based on different theory as dominant theory's empirical evidence is limited. It examines the initial reason for advent of race-conscious affirmative action in 17 undergraduate institutions in the United States. And according to the research this article concludes that there were two waves that contributed to affirmative action: 1) first wave in the early 1960s introduced by northern college administrators 2) second wave in the late 1960s introduced as a response to the protests of campus-based students. This article will help me to establish the main reasons for introduction of race-conscious affirmative action in undergraduate

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Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973).  Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing

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