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Affirmative action impact on society
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Affirmative Action I believe that colleges and Universities should be able to use low-level affirmative action when deciding whether to accept a student. I believe this because affirmative action when limited can create a more diverse college demographic in our country, which can be largely beneficial to minorities as well as non-minorities. I believe in a low-level of affirmative action, which means that I do not think a quota system for acceptance of minorities into college is okay. But I do think that giving limited preference to minorities is reasonable and does work. Limited preference to me means that slight preference is given to a minority over a non-minority who applies to college. My position on the subject falls closely in line
I believe that this idea is immoral; I don’t believe affirmative action harms minorities, and I don’t believe people should be accepted to college for the reason of being black, but instead should be a fair process for both whites and blacks.
The institution of public education has been one of the most controversial establishments in the United States since its inception. More specifically, equality in the conditions and the opportunities it provides has been sought as one of its major goals. There is little doubt that minority ethnic groups have struggled to achieve educational equality, just as they have struggled for equality in other aspects of life. One way that minorities have tried to achieve equality in education is through lobbying for help in college admissions for their respective groups. This social practice has been debated on many grounds, including necessity and ethical permissibility.
No one—whether they’re black, white, Asian, Latino, or female—should have their qualifications questioned because of their skin color. Still using affirmative action today causes more problems than it should for minorities and women. Skin color should not be a factor of consideration for anything. Only scores, hard work, and dedication should be used to determine how a person will possibly succeed in college or a job.
Affirmative action programs may or may not have been appropriate in times past where inequalities were prevalent and programs to build diversity were mandated. In the United States today, where law bars discrimination, I feel employment opportunities should be based on merit and not on race, sex or any other preconceived notion. Actively recruiting candidates that do not meet minimum requirements or standards is counterproductive to any agency that strives to serve the public in an efficient and effective manner and further erode confidence in government.
“Anyone interested in higher education should want to contemplate, on behalf of colleges and universities, students and faculty, alumni and paying parents, the fate of affirmative action(Chace, M William 20). The Oxford Dictionary states Affirmative Action is “an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination.” In 1961, John F. Kennedy signed an Executive Order calling for “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” This is now known today as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC). Affirmative action policies would later be forced upon businesses and have also been instituted at many universities where minorities are given preferred admissions over non-minorities. An Example of this would be at the University of Michigan where applicants who represented racial or ethnic minorities were given 20 points towards admission out of a 150 point system where only 100 points were needed to gain admission. Trying to put the 20 points in perspective, applicants with perfect SAT scores only received 12 points toward admission. This system was later struck down by the Supreme Court, but another similar policy was upheld at the University of Michigan Law School. With how diverse our society is currently compared to years ago, it seems to compliment that the policies have indeed worked. But now, the policies are questioned by many as whether or not they moral, constitutional, and/or...
Affirmative action has been a controversial topic ever since it was established in the 1960s to right past wrongs against minority groups, such as African Americans, Hispanics, and women. The goal of affirmative action is to integrate minorities into public institutions, like universities, who have historically been discriminated against in such environments. Proponents claim that it is necessary in order to give minorities representation in these institutions, while opponents say that it is reverse discrimination. Newsweek has a story on this same debate which has hit the nation spotlight once more with a case being brought against the University of Michigan by some white students who claimed that the University’s admissions policies accepted minority students over them, even though they had better grades than the minority students. William Symonds of Business Week, however, thinks that it does not really matter. He claims that minority status is more or less irrelevant in college admissions and that class is the determining factor.
The differing of opinions and ideas is essential to the future of our country. By creating more diversity, a college expands the range of ideas and cultures, which could lead to new creations to better the country as a whole. People with similar backgrounds sometimes think similarly. By adding different skills and backgrounds, performance will increase. An increase in diversity enables different cultures to learn about each other, which can reduce prejudice and bias. There is a large barrier between different racial and ethnic groups, so creating more diversity will help tear down the walls. The diversity of America has been steadily increasing, with a predicted demographic of no clear ethnic majority by 2050. With this rapid expansion of diversity, it only makes sense to increase diversity on college campuses to match the growth in the country. Without affirmative action, the risk of a dominated majority and segregation in colleges is high. This would put America back a hundred years to the 1896 ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson, which was a time of inequality and white supremacy. Why would we want our country to go back to something so
Affirmative Action Affirmative action can be defined as action taken to compensate for past unfairness in the education of minorities. The current system of affirmative action allows universities to admit applicants from certain ethnic and minority groups with lower credentials. The main purpose of affirmative action is to produce a diverse campus population that is comparable to today's society. The use of race as a facto by which someone is admitted to college in the long run will compromise the quality of the university. Implicating affirmative action to solve the problem of diversity on today's campuses has lead to the creation of problems.
Affirmative action should be abolished because the negatives from the program far outweigh the positives. The program is doing a lot of harm to American society instead of helping.
When people talk about the civil rights movement, the first thing that comes to mind is the famous speech “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King. His dream in short was to have equality among human beings. For the past thirty years, this country has been revolutionizing humanitarianism because there is greater concern for human welfare than one hundred years ago. The revolution began during the 1960’s, and during that era this country was drastically involved in changing the civil rights of minority groups. From this concern, a program called affirmative action evolved. Like other civil right movements, the affirmative action movement was implemented to promote equality.
Affirmative action policies were created to help level the playing field in American society. Supporters claim that these plans eliminate economic and social disparities to minorities, yet in doing so, they’ve only created more inequalities. Whites and Asians in poverty receive little to none of the opportunities provided to minorities of the same economic background (Messerli). The burden of equity has been placed upon those who were not fortunate enough to meet a certain school’s idea of “diversity” (Andre, Velasquez, and Mazur). The sole reason for a college’s selectivity is to determine whether or not a student has the credentials to attend that school....
A class-based system would help eliminate the race factor that goes along with the current affirmative action. In addition, it would diminish the perception that minorities are given unearned admission. I too agree with this change, as many of my friends believe that I have received the scholarships I have and gained entry into certain schools simply because of my race. If this change in the current affirmative action mandate were to take place it would alter their beliefs and they would realize that not only did I deserve those scholarships but I also needed them.
I will begin by explaining what an affirmative action policy is and will also provide an example of a situation where an affirmative action policy is being used. Next, I will argue that affirmative action policies are not morally justifiable because affirmative action policies reward the wrong minorities and punish the wrong non-minorities, and affirmative action policies do not support a meritocratic society. Lastly, I will state how an individual for affirmative action policies would respond to these ideas.
In my opinion, no I do not believe minorities should have lower admission standards in order to racially balance college populations. That’s not fair to other students who have worked hard to get good grades so they have a better chance of getting accepted into school and it’s not acceptable to make the admission process easier for others just because of race. Students who are minorities may create a mindset and believe they don’t have to try as hard because they have a good chance of getting accepted. Each applicant should have the same admission standards when it comes to applying for college because if not all students have the same standards the concept of equal opportunity is violated. I’m not sure why applications still have a section
Considering all the evidence, universities should not admit students based on their race or gender because this undermines the democratic principles that United States is founded upon, causes a student’s academics to be limited, and creates detriment to the future society. Equality in education, protected by our founding documents, is guaranteed to all citizens, including students, who came to America just for this reason. Students, as well as the future generation, suffer when universities pick and choose students of certain races and genders to be admitted into the school. Parity brings good to our society and without it we are unequipped in a world of disunion. Equality is our strongest barrier, so we must protect it in universities to aid our future.