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Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

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Introduction
Affirmative Action is a set of programs and policies initiated in 1960s with the goal of providing equal employment and education opportunities for everyone in the United States regardless of their race, sex, color, creed, or national origin [1]. Initially Affirmative Action intended to overcome the past discriminations against African-Americans, and was followed by 1964’s Civil Rights Act. Later, women and other groups of underrepresented minorities (URMs) were added to Affirmative Action [2]. Affirmative Action includes a wide range of policies and programs from early stages of education to faculty positions and employment [3]. During the last half century of applying Affirmative Action policies most of the debates were focused …show more content…

The assumptions of Affirmative Action have changed in today’s society. So, there is a chance that affirmative action policies do not work as well as they did thirty years ago. Affirmative action is successful in increasing the share of URMs at the beginning of the education pipeline or at entry level. But it was not successful at increasing URM’s share at every level of this pipeline. If individuals from the minority groups enter the pipeline with acceptable quality, then the upward mobility problem will be solved naturally. Affirmative action is not aiming to understand the root causes of inequality …show more content…

Affirmative Action policies improves URMs’ perception of their chance of getting admitted to higher education institutes by adding racial preferences.
Some of their long-term effects are improving future parents’ education level and as a result enhancing their ability to support their children financially and academically through university years. Successful Affirmative Action policies also improve future URM generation’s education level and alleviate the existing negative stereotypes regarding low merit of minorities.
Affirmative Action policies exacerbate the existing racial disparities through reinforcing the negative stereotypes against minorities. One of the main policy interventions of Affirmative Action is putting racial preference in granting admissions and financial aid packages. So, well represented groups perceive that their chance of receiving admission or financial aid and entering a higher education institute is negatively influenced by these policies. As a result, the social stereotypes regarding low merit of minorities who enter higher education increases. Minority groups find it difficult to integrate on campus, and their academic performance is negatively affected. So, minorities will drop out of school with higher rates and this will reinforce the negative stereotypes against minorities

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