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.
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.
“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
“O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't!” John grows up in a society that is much different from the World State.
Therefore, colleges would not have to endure any questioning regarding the admission of any of its enrolled students. In the end, the decision to continue affirmative action has served its purpose for African American writers such as Neblett and is utilized as the primary method for aiding disadvantaged minorities achieve equal educational benefits to nonminorities. However, other critics declare that affirmative action discriminates against nonminority races, and it does not primarily
In 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment in the federal government because of race, color, or national origin (1). Its purpose to end discrimination, but as the action was passed, however, this executive order laid the groundwork that evolved into something bigger and more controversial than anyone could imagine. Many people started questioning: Had affirmative action lived up to its original goal of helping minority, and less advantage population to achieve parity or equality? Or, has Affirmative Action created reverse discrimination causing a bigger problem for the society as a whole?
Gary Becker a college professor at the University of Chicago states that “Affirmative Action laws hurt individuals who are supposed to benefit from them and does more harm than good.” (Becker) Becker states “individuals less qualified perform poorer than their more qualified peers in school and in the workplace.” (Becker). Both sides each have valid points to make and evidence to support them. Groups that support and confirm Affirmative Action and there polices are The American Council on Education.
“Affirmative action is not about quotas. It’s an attempt to open more opportunities for women and people of color through aggressive recruitment and outreach greater access to academic institutions and the workplace and not exclude people on the basis of race or gender.” (Holhut3) Actions or policy favoring those individuals who are subject to discrimination particularly in relation to employment or education is called Affirmative Action. Although affirmative action is not necessarily a form of equal treatment it is a form of fair treatment. Programs that attempt to break down the wall of segregation that excluded racial minorities and women from workplace and education include quotas, minority scholarships, reverse discrimination, preferential hiring and diversity have all been linked to affirmative action.
Affirmative action has been the topic of debate for the past 51 years. It is the process that favors those who have been racially discriminated in the past and that has rejected many better qualified students for the sake of a racially diverse academic campus. Signed into effect by Lyndon B Johnson in 1965, affirmative action is meant to be beneficial to American society and minorities. However, the opposite is happening. Affirmative action needs to be done away with in American colleges because it destroys the idea of a meritocracy.
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.
Affirmative action is the practice that was designed to protect members of marginalized groups from discrimination and provide equal opportunities. Affirmative action is constantly under fire in the United States despite the benign platform on which it was built. In essence, affirmative action aims to ensure that historically and verifiably disadvantaged peoples are given a chance they deserve that might not have been given otherwise. The practice aims to increase diversity and address past wrongdoings of excluding qualified people from an opportunity for discriminatory reasons. Arguments that arise against affirmative action is that it is “reverse discrimination,” and past wrongdoings to minorities does not justify present-day “discrimination”
Abortion Pro-life and Pro-choice There are a lot of people that are against abortion. Some believe there are very few reasons that condone abortion. Most pro-life people though believe that abortion takes away lives that are not ours to take. Pro-choice activists on the other hand believe women should have the choice whether to carry the child or not. The pain-capable unborn child protection act enacted in 2010-2011 prevents abortion after 20 weeks.
Despite over fifty years of laws and legislation to combat racial discrimination, the majority of Americans still feel that race-based issues persist based on several modern polls. With affirmative action, this is a significant controversy in college admissions and employment processes. Because education and work contribute to people's livelihoods, affirmative action impacts many individuals differently in the United States. Affirmative action, however, is harmful to society overall because it acts as a catalyst for conjuring racial problems while deterring from a system which fosters skill and potential. Affirmative action, in reality, intensifies the racial prejudice in America through reverse discrimination.(anecdote) When I was young, I remember watching that one television show where one of the episodes predicted, laughed, and mocked about acceptance biases towards Hispanic and African Americans, while being against White and Asian Americans in job applications for an unknown corporation as if it was a humorous circus performance (simile).
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.
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.
