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Has Affirmative Action Outlived Its Usefulness? 1st Edition book
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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.
In 1964, Congress passed and signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which later became known as Title VII (Stewart & Brown, 2015, p. 81). This new law was created to remove discrimination from the workforce specifically race, color, national origin, religion, and sex. As with many new laws, the interpretation varies from person to person so many court cases came to elaborate of specific instances. One example is the trial between Griggs v. Duke Power Company. Griggs V. Duke Power Company Description Willi Griggs was an employee for Duke Power Company who seeked a transfer within the company.
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
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.
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).
APPLICATION SECTION In a similar case, United Steelworkers v. Weber, an affirmative-action plan which had been negotiated between an employer and a steelworkers' union was challenged by a white member of the bargaining unit. Based on the affirmative action plan, the employer accepted the most senior black trainee into a craft-training program who had less seniority over a white employee who had also applied for admission into the same program but was rejected (Rutherglen, 2010). In the instant case, the use of racial preferences will come under scrutiny if used as a reason to increase or improve diversity in certain programs utilizing an affirmative action
Although the roots of this movement date as far back as the 1900s, the legacy of the African American’s role in World War II sparked the catalyst needed to promote the legislation that eventually led to their equality. “On May 17, 1954, The Supreme Court announced its decision in the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka” (Brinkley 772). This regulation overturned the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in the Plessy V Ferguson case. The separate but equal doctrine was a prime example of domestic policy that did not uphold the government’s constitutional promise to promote the general welfare of society-to include all that fall under the definition of an American citizen. The affliction put on children who had to travel to segregated public schools placed an unequal burden and damage done to those who it pertained to.
The ruling thus lent high judicial support to racial and ethnic discrimination and led to wider spread of the segregation between Whites and Blacks in the Southern United States. The great oppressive consequence from this was discrimination against African American minority from the socio-political opportunity to share the same facilities with the mainstream Whites, which in most of the cases the separate facilities for African Americans were inferior to those for Whites in actuality. The doctrine of “separate but equal” hence encourages two-tiered pluralism in U.S. as it privileged the non-Hispanic Whites over other racial and ethnic minority
er Awad Professor Muse SCMA 323: Business Law November 16, 2016 Brown vs. Board of Education: School Desegregation Brown vs Board of Education was one of the biggest cases ever brought upon the Supreme Court and on May 17, 1954, it was unanimously ruled that the segregation of races within public schools was unconstitutional. In fact, at the time of the case, over thirty three percent of public schools were lawfully segregated by race and the court had to decide between the racism within the United States. Dating back to the Civil War time, the United States declared its independence from England with a document known as the Deceleration of Independence; in this document it is stated “all men are created equal,” and this was definitely not
Education Amendments of 1972 Historical Context Following the Civil Rights success from the previous decade, the Education Amendments of 1972, commonly known as Title IX, were passed in 1972. Primarily, Title IX prohibits discrimination based on gender, in public education institutions that receive federal compensation. Introduced by Birch Bayh, Title IX was first introduced as one sentence attached to the Education Amendments. After initially failing, it was reintroduced as part of the Education Amendments in Senate Bill 659 (1972.)
The most notable reauthorization was that of 1972. The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1972 was signed by President Nixon. It focused on rectifying the Educational Opportunity Grant (EOG) and developing grant-based assistance programs so that grants would become a foundational part of federal aid to higher education. The changes made to the Act promised to equalize federal aid by ensuring that all students with the same level of need would receive the same amount of aid and by going directly to the student, as opposed to using the college or university as an intermediary. This reauthorization also established the Title Ⅸ legislation which states that: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
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.
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).
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
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
