Affirmative action is defined as an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education (Farlex, 2016). It's is important, especially in today's society, that everyone regardless of race or gender have equal opportunities when dealing with job applications and admissions into educational institutions. A little over 50 years ago the actual term “affirmative action” was introduced by President John F. Kennedy as a way to address and attempt to fix discrimination but it wasn't fully developed at that time nor was it enforced until President Johnson took office (Forde-Mazrui, K, 2004). By the late 70s the policy began to show its flaws and reverse discrimination became an unintended …show more content…
One reason is that white Americans felt as though this policy was a form of reverse discrimination (Wilson, T. C, 2006). In 1978, Allan Bakke (who was a white male) was denied twice by a Medical school in California even though minorities with significantly lower scores than Allan's were accepted thus brought the case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Bakke stated that the university judging him solely on the basis of his race was a straight violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment (Brunner, B., & Rowen, B., 2016). The US Supreme Court ruled that inflexible quotas of the California Medical School was illegitimate and unconstitutional (Sabbagh, D., 2011). Even though this case brought out a few flaws within the affirmative action policy it was still many complex issues that would later come up through the years. Another claim is that white Americans felt that it gave minorities positions that they are not qualified to have and that their possibility for success is low. Many stated that affirmative action takes away the competitive part for admission and employment opportunities because they no longer look at merit and work ethic but rather race (Berry, B., & Bonilla-Silva, E., 2008). The case Fisher v. University of Texas is another case where the student felt as though the use of race as a consideration for admissions also violated the Equal Protection clause (Brunner, B., & Rowen, B., 2016). Even though the Supreme Court ruled against Fisher, this case was closely and publicly watched and brought a lot of controversy and backlash to the affirmative action