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Benefits Of Affirmative Action

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Affirmative Action: Best for all? Affirmative action is a very big topic these days in the news and it should be. Affirmative action affects everyone, weather you’re in school or are employed. Affirmative action programs are put into place to encourage diversity in classrooms and in the workplace, which should then increase opportunities for minority groups throughout the country. Affirmative action allows employers and admissions officials to take race, gender, and/or ethnicity into account when considering your application. Affirmative action should not be something permitted because race, gender, and/or ethnicity should not be taken into account when making decisions on whom to hire or to accept to a university when there could other candidates …show more content…

Affirmative action was first put into place to just help African Americans right after the Civil Rights Movement that had been discriminated against for a while and the government felt it was wrong and that they should give them some sorts of advantage to make up for this. Later on affirmative action began to include many other groups including, “[…] women, Hispanics, and others, and have been intuited in other sectors, including higher education and the military” (Affirmative Action NVC). Affirmative action over the years has gone into something greatly, it is now build into our society as something that is considered even though everyone says that they do not discriminate against race or gender, which is not always the case. Affirmative action is trying to do good to society by allowing others opportunities that they have had before, or at least that’s what we’re told to believe. Many people that are helped by affirmative action are actually hurt in the long run by the system because they are usually under qualified but somehow still get in or get the position. This can be costly to the university and employer that hire or admit these individuals. These individuals that really shouldn’t have qualified are now in the system when other people that are more qualified could take there …show more content…

Brownstein has a good point in, “And a society that relies on minorities to fill most of its future workforce needs but reserves the best opportunities primarily for the children of white, college-educated parents will court endemic social tension” (Brownstein). It is funny but not surprising that Brownstein brings up this point because he is right that a majority of college students I would say have white college-educated parents. That is the way the system should be in place, if they can afford to attend school and obviously if the parents value education then more then likely their children will as well which is something that the government doesn’t get and isn’t engrained in many minority children. This has been the case all along and the reason why many are opposed to affirmative action because it allows individuals not prepared for school or work to be given a number when it should be given to the privileged educated children that are better suited for the real

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”This is what is supposed to be in effect overall public schools and colleges. But discrimination is inevitable, not because of all the racist people out there, but because of the lack of opportunities to be aware of discrimination between races. Although the United States has come a very long way in race equality, there is still vast room for improvement among all

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Affirmative action in his eyes not only discriminated against non-minority, but also gave way for failure due to the lack of proper schooling before post-secondary institutions for minorities. The term minority student means that students were disadvantaged and were underrepresented in America. Richard argues that the people who affirmative action was designed for were not benefiting because affirmative action was not

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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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Is affirmative action still necessary for guaranteeing equal access to educational opportunities at elite universities and graduate schools? Should admissions decisions be based solely on academic criteria and merit? Key Words: affirmative action, Grutter V. Bollinger, and diversity. Grutter V. Bollinger Research Paper 3 Affirmative Action in Education Affirmative action was formed more than fifty years ago.

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In the article, “The Truth about ‘holistic College Admissions”, Sara Harberson expresses how universities that are not allowed to use racial preferences on college admissions, are still devising strategies to work around the laws to produce the same result. Harberson states how the institutions are using what is called “holistic admissions”, which allows a college to factor in a student's background, race and income. By filtering out the minority groups, they are creating a less-diverse community, preventing students of certain backgrounds from a proper education, and taking away opportunities from students based on their ethnicity. Colleges are using racial segregation in the admission process so that they can have a white-favoring campus

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This law also ensures diversity on campus, and on top of that affirmative action is still used for the remaining students that are not at the top 10% of their class (Hung). Evidently, race plays a crucial role in the admission decisions. Hung claims that race shouldn’t play such a big role in the admission process because it is considered discrimination. He supports this argument by comparing the average GPA and SAT scores of those students that were granted admission but were not in the top 10 percent of their class. African Americans had the lowest averaged scores, followed by Hispanics, then whites, and then Asian Americans.

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Thus, often without realizing it, the United States has practiced what, in effect, was white affirmative action on a highly generous and widespread basis, followed by a much more modest program of black affirmative action. By understanding this history, we can come to terms with the widening gap between blacks and whites noted by Lyndon Johnson and with the incapacity of many blacks to be able to make good this gap in the following four decades (Katznelson,

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Perhaps one way of defining and understanding the concept of white male privilege is to imagine that a white male walks through life with an invisible duffle bag full of unearned rights and privileges that a white male alone enjoys. These privileges are said to exist as these white males have something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, versus anything, in particular, they have either failed to do or have actually done. Because other groups do not walk through life with this invisible duffle bag full of unearned rights and privileges, Affirmative Action policies were initiated to provide those without an invisible duffle bag, a visible one; thus, allowing all to walk through life equally. In regards

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We are in need of a Brown v. Board of Education for higher education, meaning a federal policy of desegregation that would ensure students that not just some options in the public system exist regardless of race, but that access to the entire system is available regardless of race. They need to see that the system as a whole is not divided into levels based on social status, education, or income (Steinbaum, 2017). This would help to reduce inequality within American higher education. In this era of credentialization (when employers raise the educational requirements for a given job) we cannot stop until all students have full access to an equal education (Steinbaum,

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Another thing that places students of color at a disadvantage in college admissions is the persisting cultural bias in high-stakes testing. “High-stakes” tests are those that are tied to major consequences, such as admission to college, or even high school graduation. Fair education reform advocates have long been citing an extensive record of standardized testing concerns, many of which relate to racial bias and discrimination. As researcher and author Harold Berlak explains in the journal Rethinking Education: Standardized testing perpetuates institutionalized racism and contributes to the achievement gap between whites and minorities. For instance, the deeply embedded stereotype that African Americans perform poorly on standardized tests

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I believe there should be limits on religious expressions in public schools because religion is such a touchy subject and in schools it can be difficult from my experience. QUESTION 5 An affirmative action policy uses two different approaches, positive or kind discrimination in which race or some other position is considered as a positive rather than a negative aspect. The second approach being compensatory action to favor members of the deprived group who themselves may never have been the victims of discrimination.

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Every student is an investment, so logically it would make more sense to give aid or admittance to those who are not of color. People of color are more likely to drop out of college because of financial difficulty or other factors. Therefore, educational institutions take insurance policies to make sure their investment was the right one. Even though a student of color might be a much better candidate for an educational opportunity, universities might not give them those chances. Colleges can only offer so much financial aid in a year, therefore, universities are more likely to give that aid to a student who is more likely to spend more time and money at the institution instead of someone who is more statistically and stereotypically prone to drop out.

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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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Weak affirmative action which is just an effort to ensure that all qualified minority groups are considered whereas the strong one is when some sort of preference is given to the minority candidate. Later the author concludes that he will focus on the strong affirmative action because it is the most controversial one. Then the author gives us many arguments of different people and critics for and against affirmative action. Later on, David Boonin gives us his own arguments in favor of affirmative action which are 1) the unfair disadvantage argument; 2) the (other) compensation argument; 3) the appeal to diversity; 4) the need for role models; 5) the bias-elimination argument; 6) race as a qualification. “I conclude that while affirmative action may prove to have some desirable features and some beneficial consequences, there’s no reason to believe that it’s morally obligatory.

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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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