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Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action To Reverse Discrimination

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The human race is no stranger to harming, insulting, belittling, and even killing other people because they are different. People can be quick to judge and make assumptions about others just because of their gender, skin color, race, religion, and national origin. The United States is no exception. Throughout the history of the United States, different groups of people were taken advantaged and used to further the strength, reputation, and wealth of the individual and country as a whole. Lucky this is not the eighteenth century and today people are considerably more opened minded and everyone can vote.
Discrimination has a long history in the United States and to discuss affirmative action it is important that we look back at a time that unfortunately …show more content…

Although colleges and jobs are not supposed to hire/accept people based on a quota it can happen on occasion in order to create a diverse environment. Another con is that it can promote color blindness. Color blindness is a concept that you don't see color when in fact that is a statement that degrades a person's identity. A university can lie and say that a person's race color, sex, and national origin doesn't matter, but the fact of the matter is if it is required for a person to check off a bo then you are not truly the case. We can not lie to ourselves and say that affirmative action is perfect, but our current situation remains that it is providing more opportunities for people/ groups who normally have none. So, till something better comes along we got to work with what we got. Imagine a world where the jobs you can apply to was limited and even if you were qualified you never caught the callback. This way reality for many Americans less than fifty years ago. One of the affirmative action important aspect (and pro) is that it guarantees equality in the workplace and it provides opportunities to historically disadvantaged groups. It's important that we try to a world where all of us can succeed not a select few. The only way we can continue to advance and evolve as a society is even everyone is treated fairly and …show more content…

Yes, it does or at least at some level. As I have said previously the affirmative actions the main goal is providing everyone an equal opportunity without the fear of being treated differently. To be quite honest I think one of the reasons I and many other less fortunate students got the opportunity to attend college was because of affirmative action. While I do understand that there are negative aspects to affirmative action and that it can't really be equal if you lower the expectations for a group of people I do think it is necessary at the moment. The public school system is not necessarily doing a proper job of providing an equal opportunity across the nation or preparing students for college. When I was in high school the classroom size was around 30 and there were only twenty beat-up textbooks (we couldn't even bring them home). While on the other hand one of my good friends that I meet in college also where to public school but in the suburbs and her experience seemed out straight out of a movie. I must admit that many of the people I meet seemed dumb smart and I felt like I was not at a college level I think I'm doing pretty well for myself. As of right now, the United States needs affirmative action and I think it's doing a decent job at promoting equality especially leveling the

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Affirmative action was designed by the federal government and seemed to be a strong tactic but there are many imperfections in this policy. For example, California vs Bakke is a famous court case based off of reverse discrimination. A white male by the name Allan Bakke was denied admission to The University of California medical school. Instead of picking Bakke the school accepted a less qualified black male because the school must accept at least 16 minorities out of 100 into the medical program. The university uses race as an aid to admit minorities and increase diversity instead of accepting well qualified individuals.

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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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“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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”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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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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According to Justin Pope’s article, “Race-Neutral Admissions Can Work: Richard Kahlenberg’s Century Foundation Study”, Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and prominent advocate of class-based affirmative action, recently conducted a report showing the number of minority attendees in relation with the amount of white attendees and the dramatic difference that is still present in some universities. “Kahlenberg also acknowledges that highly selective universities like UCLA and the Universities of California-Berkeley and Michigan haven’t recovered from drop-offs in minority enrollments after voters in those states outlawed racial preferences.” Although voters have banned the use of the policy to “better” the issue, the issue is only becoming significantly worse, thus proving that the affirmative action policy was not to blame for the falling numbers of minority

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In the same way, I think that affirmative action does have its setbacks as well as advantages. However, my position on affirmative action is that I stand against affirmative action on education. [unfair] One reasoen to be against affirmative action is because it does not leave people with the fair advantage such as the minority. Let us say that someone has 12 cupcakes and 6 of them are reserved for the non-minority. The six of the non-minority has already took the last of the 6 cupcakes and.

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1786 Words | 8 Pages

When people think about affirmative action, the first thing that comes to their mind is positive discrimination. That is not quite right. Affirmative action is necessary in order to achieve equal opportunity, especially in the fields of higher education and employment. Affirmative action should not be banned or regulated because it gives women and people from ethnic and social minorities the chance of obtaining the job they want or studying at the school they choose. Affirmative action is very important system to our society and employers should dedicate all their resources to ensure that people are not discriminated against on the basis of their ethnic group or their gender.

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This affirmative action has worked to great effect, creating a more racially-just and diverse society than otherwise would have been the case. “Many view Affirmative Action as an expensive exercise that violates principles of merit of equal opportunity and that, in any event, has not achieved its original goals as enunciated by President Johnson in 1965. Further, there is no agreement or clarity about what, if anything should be put in its place” (Katznelson, n.d). The almost exclusively white-targeted nature of the extensive federal legislation before 1965 has largely been ignored by policy critics, just as it was ignored by Lyndon Johnson.

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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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503 Words | 3 Pages

This has been counteracted with The Equality Act in 2015 which is a bill in the United States House of Representatives and the Senate that will soon be passed down to modify the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include protections that ban discrimination on the basis of

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Due to Affirmative Action, institutions have to reach certain quotas to gain funding. However, once quotas are reached, there are many people of color who do not benefit. Timing is very important in whether or not a person of color can benefit from the government policy. Therefore, it benefits people by the situation and not as a whole. As diversity is very important to colleges and universities, their actions in the scholarship and admittance processes say otherwise.

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1011 Words | 5 Pages

The fear is that without this policy, diversity will not always happen if left up to chance. It is true that schools and other organizations have discriminated against women and people of other race. This problem created an unfair advantage for males of the superior race. Supporters also charge that without affirmative action African Americans would have a more difficult process of being admitted into prestigious and predominately white universities (Hopkins, 2010). Affirmative Action allows minorities to reflect different areas of study and work that otherwise would have never been considered.

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As far as morality and justice are concerned, if a school or business or government declines to practice affirmative action, that’s okay” – says the

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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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