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Influence of affirmative action
Effects of affirmative action on education
Affirmative action in the arguments for and against
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Affirmative action was set in 1961 to ensure that minorities can obtain a job based on ethnicity in hopes to make up for past discrimination and diversify the work place, giving them an equal opportunity to prosper. This eventually trickled down into the Educational system which it eventually lost its way. Many students go on dreaming and working hard in order to eventually get that highly desired admissions letter their final year of High School. But what happens when your admission letter was given to another person less qualified academically but because of their race they filled that spot needed to meet the schools quota. Affirmative action places students into schools they do not match up academically leading them to ultimately not prosper. Racial preference should not be used to meet a quota, a person hard work and character should outshine their ethnic background and should not play apart in any decision making.
In the case of University of California v. Bakke, Bakke had applied twice to the University of California Medical School, but was rejected both times. Despite the fact that Bakke’s GPA and exam scores were up to par, he was turned down in order to fill in the schools reserved place for “qualified” minorities. In order to dismantle exclusion from the medical program. His grades exceeded those of the minority students who had been admitted. Bakke was denied based on his race and the belief that this program would bring diversity but in reality they are trying to remove discriminatory motives but still end up discriminating against a race. Basing admission on race more than a persons hard achievements. Places have one set of qualification for minorities and another set of qualifications for the majority. If programs ...
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...than the actual work put fourth. “Real diversity is found in the wealth of experience, talents, perspectives, and interest of unique individuals. People of the same race do not all think alike.” People are more than their ethnicity, they have more to offer than what is believed of them and how stunted society makes them feel. It makes them feel like they need these programs because they just wont meet standards. Hard work and perseverance is admirable unlike a hand out.
Any position should be granted to whomever is best qualified. Giving people what they deserve because of what they put fourth instead of giving someone a position because of their skin color shows our view on them. We just see color not who they are as a person and what they have to offer. There race should not be what we see, or how they put us one person closer to meeting the monthly/yearly quota.
In 1973 a thirty-three year-old Caucasian male named Allan Bakke applied to and was denied admission to the University of California Medical School at Davis. In 1974 he filed another application and was once again rejected, even though his test scores were considerably higher than various minorities that were admitted under a special program. This special program specified that 16 out of 100 possible spaces for the students in the medical program were set aside solely for minorities, while the other 84 slots were for anyone who qualified, including minorities. What happened to Bakke is known as reverse discrimination. Bakke felt his rejections to be violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment, so he took the University of California Regents to the Superior Court of California. It was ruled that "the admissions program violated his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment"1 The clause reads as follows:"...No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor without due process of the law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."2 The court ruled that race could not be a factor in admissions. However, they did not force the admittance of Bakke because the court could not know if he would have been admitted if the special admissions program for minorities did not exist.
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.
Affirmative action, while a great idea in the beginning, is no longer needed to make up for the past discrimination of women and minorities. It does not get rid of discrimination, but rather creates it towards whites and men. Any form of discrimination is wrong, whether intentional or unintentional. Businesses and universities will set aside a separate pool for minorities and women so they don’t have to originally compete against the whole pool of applicants. A person’s qualifications and how they got to where they are should not be questioned because of affirmative action. The only reason some people are still questioned or considered undeserving is because affirmative action still takes place. Getting rid of affirmative action in universities and businesses will eliminate reverse discrimination and ensure that their qualifications, along with achievements, will not be questioned based on the skin color or gender of a
...ored People shows, minorities, if they have access to the right sources, can and do succeed in America. It is only those -- though there are many as Colored People also proves -- who are truly disadvantaged that need governmental assistance in attaining essential resources -- income, family stability, housing, schooling, and positive peer group support -- so that they can become more mobile. In the end, Gates, through his personal family and life experiences, emphasizes to his that color is indeed only on the surface. We are all human being, and the reason that inequality exists in America has nothing to do with color, but rather to do with access to resources.
Affirmative action, the act of giving preference to an individual for hiring or academic admission based on the race and/or gender of the individual has remained a controversial issue since its inception decades ago. Realizing its past mistake of discriminating against African Americans, women, and other minority groups; the state has legalized and demanded institutions to practice what many has now consider as reverse discrimination. “Victims” of reverse discrimination in college admissions have commonly complained that they were unfairly rejected admission due to their race. They claimed that because colleges wanted to promote diversity, the colleges will often prefer to accept applicants of another race who had significantly lower test scores and merit than the “victims”. In “Discrimination and Disidentification: The Fair-Start Defense of Affirmative Action”, Kenneth Himma responded to these criticisms by proposing to limit affirmative action to actions that negate unfair competitive advantages of white males established by institutions (Himma 277 L. Col.). Himma’s views were quickly challenged by his peers as Lisa Newton stated in “A Fair Defense of a False Start: A Reply to Kenneth Himma” that among other rationales, the Fair-Start Defense based on race and gender is a faulty justification for affirmative action (Newton 146 L. Col.). This paper will also argue that the Fair-Start Defense based on race and gender is a faulty justification for affirmative action because it cannot be fairly applied in the United States of America today. However, affirmative action should still be allowed and reserved for individuals whom the state unfairly discriminates today.
Bollinger case, the Gratz v. Bollinger case favored a different ruling in which race was not constitutional for distributing 20 or 1/5 of points to minorities who were underrepresented on the campus of state universities. I too agree with the court's decision because race can often get complicated when other factors such as being bi-racial and being a certain percentage of other ethnicities can be difficult to classify or group. Giving me 20 points on my application just because I'm Black is somewhat impeding and downgrading; my education, extra-curriculum activities, and other leadership experiences will be devalued and unappreciated in my eyes. I am a strong advocate for more racial inclusion and diversity programs on college campuses; however, I understand that race can be complex with negating and challenging certain stereotypes or other taboo topics that relates to race and ethnicity. Thus, another person's race should not be more valued or look down upon just because of phylogenetic features. Each race should be viewed as one of the same, but in reality, its not because of economical disparities, political beliefs, and social
Diversity, a word often heard growing up. In high school diversity was an issue that was pushed repeatedly. I attended a school that had a student body of over 2000 students, in which diversity was not really an issue. As time passed I found that diversity affected my life more and more. As college neared filling out applications became more of a ritual, and I found that by being born into a white middle class family would hinder my financial status rather than help it. Recently an article appeared in the Iowa State Daily, which addressed the issue of a white-only scholarship. In addition to the scholarships offered to members of the minority races, a scholarship should be offered to the members of the decreasing majority.
In his essay called "Affirmative Action Encourages Racism", Thaddeus Watulak argues that affirmative action is a racist policy, which relies on racial stereotypes and reinforces racist attitudes in the society. I mostly agree with him because I believe he touches some very important points, which are not taken to account in the first place.
Affirmative action is without a doubt, one of the most controversial and debated political topics found throughout the entirety of the history of the United States, especially in regards to college admissions. On both sides of the argument, you have millions of Americans vitriolically defending their beliefs as to whether or not affirmative action is a positive thing that benefits the entirety of America as a whole, or rather an outdated model existing well past its expiration date. Both sides of the argument have its pro and cons, but personally, I am of the opinion that affirmative action in regards to college admissions does more harm than good for America as a whole on a social, political, and economic level, and that it at the very least needs to be modified heavily, if not abolished altogether. However, in order to first understand the arguments both supporting and decrying affirmative action, as well as the controversy behind it, we first need to delve into its history for the related context.
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.
California's decision in 1996 to outlaw the use of race in public college admissions was widely viewed as the beginning of the end for affirmative action at public universities all over the United States. But in the four years since Californians passed Proposition 209, most states have agreed that killing affirmative action outright would deepen social inequality by denying minority citizens access to higher education. The half-dozen states that are actually thinking about abandoning race-sensitive
Affirmative action was created to allow minorities to have more opportunities in the workforce and in education. It still remains to be a debate whether affirmative action should be a necessary route even though we have made progress towards greater equality. The argument over Affirmative action has been going on for some time with two opposing sides. There is one side who finds Affirmative action as an opportunity to the less fortunate; those who are against have the belief that it promotes less qualified individuals rather than a person own merit.
The issue of affirmative action has been a controversial one since its inception. The law was developed during the 1960’s as a result of the civil rights movement and the need to address injustices committed against minorities throughout the United States history. There were multiple attempts to correct the inequities between the majority and the various minorities including the 13, 14 and 15th Amendments. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 allowed for the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to create rules to end discrimination. Affirmative action came into being with the executive order 11246 issued by President Johnson. The Civil Rights Act and President Johnson’s executive order have been updated throughout the years to address gender, disabilities, age and other characteristics that could be considered discriminatory.
Affirmative Action is defined as an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and woman (Merriam-Webster). Recently a landmark decision on a regarding affirmative action has being in the forefront; Grutter v. Bollinger was a case in which the United States Supreme Court banned the affirmative action admissions policy of the University of Michigan Law School. A white law school candidate in 1997 with a GPA of 3.8 trials the University of Michigan Law School use of race being the reason in the admissions process due to being denied as a student at Michigan Law. The decision in this court case was the University of Michigan Law School admissions program that gave special consideration for being a certain racial minority did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment.
Imagine waking up tomorrow and reading in the local paper that the government was giving tax breaks to minorities in order to prevent discrimination. Congress insists that the deductions will “help level the playing field” in American society, claiming that diversity is necessary in creating an ideal nation, but is this attempt to prevent disparities and racism not an act of inequality in itself? By putting this policy into place, the government is giving advantages to minorities without showing the same generosity to Caucasians of the same economic backgrounds. Protests would be taking place around the country as citizens argue that the plan violates their Constitutional right to equality. Yet this is exactly the type of scenario seen in universities across the country. Colleges use race as a large factor in admissions in order to create “optimal diversity” among the students. However, this attempt at variety often comes at the expense of white and Asian students. For these reasons, affirmative action policies in college admissions should be eliminated in the United States.