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Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

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Affirmative Action Should Be Discontinued For the most part, high school students have a thirst for higher education. Nowadays, teenagers spend a massive amount of time with their heads in the books to achieve the most and best that they possibly can academically. Even with exceptionally good grades, getting into a good college may not be as easy as it seems, especially when race comes into play. Affirmative action has been used in college admissions for a while. When deciding which students to admit into a university, race and color are taken into consideration giving minorities a chance for a shot at the goal. As Carl Cohen, philosophy professor at the University of Michigan, says, “when preference is given flatly by skin color or by national origin, the inevitable result is the award of advantages to some who deserve …show more content…

Instead of solely considering race as a factor, it is only fair that a family’s income is looked at as well. On that note, affirmative action is unfair and should be terminated. Affirmative action in university admissions was introduced in the late 1960s as an effort to jump-start racial integration and foster equal opportunity. The idea of this came across as a positive action, but at one point along the way it took a wrong turn. Many people started to second-guess whether or not affirmative action is for the better. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said, “I thought that the whole purpose of affirmative action was to help students who come from underprivileged backgrounds” (Kahlenberg). Although the motives of affirmative action are positive, the conduct is wrong and intolerable. Cohen says that the fundamental principle is “giving preference by race, by skin color, is wrong, unjust; when done by an agency of the state it is unlawful, a violation of federal statutes and of our Constitution” (Cohen). It is an unfair practice not only to

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In the end the Supreme Court supported the lawfulness of affirmative action, but restricted its practice. The court’s ruling

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As Ratana explained, “It is unconstitutional for any institution to employ a racial quota under the Equal Protection Clause. Also, state laws do not supersede the law of the land. Affirmative action just factors in race as one of the many criteria that institutions use in the consideration of who to admit into colleges and employ”. One of the main purposes of the Affirmative action policy was to create a more diverse community. However, some universities have argued by saying that the ban of the policy is so that they can ensure a diverse community.

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Critics of affirmative action frequent describe the policy as being unfair, asserting that it contravenes a conserved system of meritocracy in the country by basing selection decisions on demographic characteristics at the expense of ability and achievement (Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 1997). Defenders take a different position that can be explained by two facts: racism and sexism are still present in the United States society and affirmative action is the most efficient and effective way of reducing discrimination than the present alternatives. However, affirmative action increases fusion and fairness in employment and in education because it works as a proactive observing system. As Crosby and Smith (2005) consider, “such policies may help ensure that patterns of bias—including selective system bias— are uncovered and

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Affirmative action in the United States I believe that affirmative action negatively affects on both minorities and majorities. From a minority’s perspective, the idea that minorities can receive benefits from others due to their race, ethnicity, or gender can cause them to feel segregated against anyway. Since the term, ‘minority,’ no longer applies to every females or person of color today, female students or students of color with affluent backgrounds may feel segregated and devalued even when they did not get any special benefit from affirmative action policies. Majorities, in this case, male or white students, will also get discouraged because this can be regarded as a form of reverse discrimination, especially with racial affirmative action programs.

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On the Paradox of Affirmative Action Inequality has pervaded American society throughout history, and it continues to invade the lives of young Americans in the form of affirmative action. Affirmative action, a process in which colleges favor minorities and other disadvantaged groups, fails to serve its intended purposes: to compensate for historical discrimination. Worse, it creates aptly named reverse racism, wherein the majority has a disadvantage. Affirmative action also has a goal of creating diversity, but diversity includes more than race; moreover, the importance of equality vastly dwarfs the importance of diversity, though the two are closely entangled. Despite benevolent intentions, the institution of affirmative action policies

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“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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In the multitude of court cases concerning the issue the court has conceded that schools are allowed to give more weight to race as long as they consider others. If we take this to the extreme, schools could devise an admissions program to mostly consider race and brush over other factors. If we continue to make race such a crucial part of the admissions process it will become increasingly harder to cut those ties. In Grutter Justice O’Connor urged the point that affirmative action would have to have a logical endpoint. If the court and society continue to allow it to progress at the current rate affirmative action may become permanent.

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Mexican Americans/Chicanx people in the United States throughout the 20th century have always had disadvantages in the United States. They been fighting oppression, discrimination and equal rights in this country. From establishing a colonial labor system, enforced immigration laws, LAPD police brutality, El Plan de Aztlán, El Plan de Santa Bárbara, and the 1968 walkouts. The history of Chicanx people in this country is huge but is still not really well known by many but thanks to all of the fighting for equal rights that Chicanx people fought for we now have ethnic classes that teaches us about our own history and empower us to keep on fighting for our rights. All the way back to the industrialization era in the United States, the economy grew and new opportunities of labor became available.

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Affirmative action is controversial in the united states. Affirmative action was first spoken of by the Supreme Court in the case of Allan Bakke. Bakke argued that his grades and test scores had ranked him well above many students who had been accepted at the school and that the only likely clarification for his denial was that he was white, whereas those others accepted were black or Latino. Bakke won his case in 1978 before the supreme court and was admitted to the medical school, but he failed in getting affirmative action declared unconstitutional. (Ginsberg et al.

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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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People always contemplate whether college admissions are fair. Some schools believe that admissions should be completely merit-based whereas other schools believe that admissions should be primarily merit-based but allow racial preferences to be favored over others with the same credentials. Racial preferences in admissions are one of the most common talked about topics among education in the Supreme Court. The plan for college admissions was to incorporate affirmative action, which is “the policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who are perceived to suffer from discrimination within a culture.” Many people think that affirmative action should be banned from college admissions to give each student a fair chance.

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Affirmative Action The use of race as a factor in the process of college admissions has been and continues to be a hotly debated topic. Every high school that has taken a basic civics class has most likely heard of affirmative action. Even if they aren’t entirely familiar with the name “affirmative action” many are familiar with the goal of these programs whether they know it or not. Affirmative action is a Government (or private) program designed to redress historic injustices against specific groups by making special efforts to provide members of these groups with access to educational and employment opportunities (“Affirmative Action: Crash Course Government and Politics #32.”).

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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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I believe in having faith. Faith is having complete trust or confidence in something or someone. Each and everyday I am tested by the trials of life, and gratefully I have my faith to keep me grounded. Throughout my life I have learned to stick to my beliefs in rough situations. I have faith that my friends will always be there for me.

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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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