Affirmative Action Debate

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Affirmative Action Debate

"A policy designed to redress past discrimination against women and minority groups through measures to improve their economic and educational opportunities." At first glance this definition seems to explain fairly well what affirmative action is and convinces the reader that it is done in good faith to help make up for past discrimination, yet affirmative action is accompanied by many different opinions. This paper will discuss the different viewpoints regarding affirmative action.

The film Brazil in Black and White talks about affirmative action and its introduction in Brazil. The University of Brasilia has just implemented this action and we see the journey of students applying under affirmative action to increase their chances of being admitted, as well as those who are not. Here we see various opinions. Karinny is "not against the quotas" and applies under it; unluckily for her she doesn’t look black enough. Yet we see the contrast with Iolanda who thinks differently, she says "some people try to take advantage of being black. They act like victims to get what they want. I'm against that.” Even though she does look black she doesn’t apply to the University of Brasilia under this system because she thinks it would be unfair. In brazil this action has been very controversial because its in the media, it estimated that for every one article in favor of affirmative action there is twenty against it. The attitude of people Brazilians was very similar to the attitude of American in March of 1961 when President John F. Kennedy implemented affirmative action. Many Americans were against this and for the same reasons as Brazilians, that it was unfair, yet those who would be benefited against it, for the most part, just like Brazil citizens.

This article titled “Affirmative Action” talks provide opinions both ways but mostly talks about opposition of affirmative action. It does recognize that "such program... [is] based on good intentions [but it will] do more harm than good"(par.4). It argues that it would actually no be equality because the fact of being one race would boost someone’s chances to et into a certain school, which "violates the fundamental American value of equality of opportunity"(par. 4). Another argument made against it is that and acceptance to college based on race would be as if Americans nowadays were having to pay for their ancestors mistake, because slavery was abolished under the 13th amendment, Americans against this feel like they haven't enslaved anyone so why should race matter?

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