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Arguments Against Affirmative Action

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Is Affirmative action the way to correct the wrongs of the past? Historically in America, discrimination has been a common practice among American’s by judging and limiting the American value of equality and opportunity. Biases created perceptions of women and their roles in society. These biases have created cultural standards that continue to hinder equality. Women have been fighting for their rights to establish themselves as individuals for the same equality and opportunity as men, but with limited success. For example, it wasn’t until the 20th century that the opportunity to vote was guaranteed for women. Even with the great progress women have made, equality in compensation is still not commensurate to male counterparts. Inequities have been fought for hundreds of years, yet they have still not been overcome. Affirmative actions should be used to promote and establish behaviors by requiring the value to be accepted and exercised.
There are several complexities applying affirmative action to reconcile discriminatory practices of the past. Affirmative action is taken to provide equal opportunity and provide the ability to overcome cultural biases that have hindered advancement of …show more content…

Johnson articulated “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair" (The Leadership Conference). These new laws provided the prohibition of job discrimination. Equal Opportunity did not provide proactive measures against unfavorable

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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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411 Words | 2 Pages

Erica Beckman Duran English 1A 28 October 2015 Affirmative Action In Chapter Seven of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? , Beverly Tatum discusses affirmative action, an action that guarantees equal opportunity to all individuals, regardless of any circumstances (117). Tatum remarks on the history of affirmative action, in which it was introduced to language and our legal system by executive order 11246 by President Lyndon B. Johnson (1965), and obligated federal contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, religion, sex, or national origin” (116-117).

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110 Words | 1 Pages

“A series of legislative initiatives and decisions made by the Supreme Court of the United States defined the possibilities of affirmative action policy” (Finkelman, 2004). Affirmative action is such a controversial topic which has been brought up in many Supreme Court cases. In Griggs v. Duke Power case in 1971, the court argued “Title VII” bans “not only overt discrimination but also practices which are fair in form but discriminatory in operation.” (Finkelman, 2004). To eliminate discrimination processes under Title VII, all employers began to hire and recruit more minorities.

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1629 Words | 7 Pages

We have seen in the past four decades race-based affirmative action programs that have arisen and fitfully developed through judicial challenges. As in most case, the best of intentions do not always lead to positive outcomes. Nothing could be more apt in describing the perilous position we have bestowed upon millions of minority students who have been admitted to higher learning institutions under the auspices of diversity. As illustrated by the standardized test and GPA numbers in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the students admitted to the medical school of UC-Davis under their affirmative action policy were extraordinarily less qualified when compared to the student body as a whole. This not only unfairly displaced white and Asian students who would have otherwise been admitted to those spot on merit but also places those underperforming students in an environment in which they are destined to fail.

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2071 Words | 9 Pages

From the earliest of times in society, females have had to consistently fight for equality in society. The mistreatment of women often included violence, abuse, financial inequalities, harassment, voting inequalities, and many more inequalities that men have not had to face compared to females. These unacceptable actions that are often seen as “normal” in society are a grim reminder of what women endured and still have to endure today. Many women never had a platform to fight for change and call out injustice in fear of their safety, shame from others, and the threat of breaking “social norms”. However, many influential women risked many things for the basic rights that men have been enjoying for centuries.

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933 Words | 4 Pages

Many people think the most predominant social injustice in the 1960’s revolved around racism, which was mostly true. But few realize that gender inequality was a much more harmful than racism in aspects such as employment, family life, and government service, where women were disregarded and underpaid. To notice the differences between discriminations in gender and race, one would have to fall into both categories as Shirley Chisholm had, the first African-American Congresswoman. Having experienced this disadvantage, Chisholm directed her career in a different direction. On August 10th, 1969 in Washington D.C., Shirley Chisholm made history by addressing gender inequality in her speech, “For The Equal Rights Amendment”.

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562 Words | 3 Pages

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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398 Words | 2 Pages

Law Day Essay The 14th Amendment has played a large role in the history of the United States, and still affects us to this day. One major role that it has played a part of recently is, Affirmative Action in the U.S. and whether it goes against the equal protection clause from the 14th Amendment or not. The basis behind the installation of Affirmative Action was to make amends for the racial intolerance held by many towards minorities during the early-mid 1900’s. It was put into effect to help increase enrollment of African-Americans, and other ethnicities that had been profiled against, to help them get into schools that had previously segregated race or denied them access all together.

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1106 Words | 5 Pages

After the Brown decision, many institutions of higher education began to desegregate, although the process was slow and uneven. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent legislation further strengthened the legal basis for desegregation in higher education. While affirmative action has been a controversial topic, with some arguing that it is reverse discrimination, others argue that it is necessary to address historical inequalities and create a more diverse and inclusive society (History.com,

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1153 Words | 5 Pages

Next, equality does not always actually mean equality. What that means is that even when we say equality, that does not always mean that things are fair and equal. Think Jim Crow laws, separate but equal, laws that were, at one time, supported by the U.S. government which legalized segregation on the condition that so long as the facilities such as medical care, housing accommodations, education, employment, services, and transportation provided to each race were equal, local governments could legally segregate them; it also provided "equal protection" under the law to all citizens. As most people know or will find, Jim Crow laws did not actually work this way, in that the facilities that were offered were anything but equal, with people of color, especially black people, receiving services that were completely inadequate and left them with little opportunity of upward mobility and facilities that hardly worked. Despite being promised the equality of their white peers, “blacks were largely denied their rightful share of political power and economic opportunity” (Bloom

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845 Words | 4 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

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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

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1011 Words | 5 Pages

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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1028 Words | 5 Pages

1. The shackled runner: time to rethink positive discrimination? Citation: (Noon 2010)

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1734 Words | 7 Pages

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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