History Of Affirmative Action

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Affirmative Action: History and Politicization Although the history of affirmative action is significantly shorter and more compact than abortion, affirmative action remains a dividing issue between conservatives and liberals. President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925 in 1961 to affirm the government’s efforts to create equal opportunity for qualified candidates, but Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 in 1965, which explicitly prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, and eventually sex, superseded this. Specifically regarding college admissions, the first wave of affirmative action arose in the 1960s in northern schools, either in response to campus protests and urban riots or from liberally …show more content…

The height of reverse discrimination cases was in the 1978 Supreme Court case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The affirmative action policy in place had reserved sixteen spots for qualified minorities. University of California Medical School at Davis rejected Allan Bakke, a white man, twice, and both times the school admitted candidates less qualified than Bakke. The Supreme Court ultimately decided that race could be a consideration in an effort to promote diversity, but could not implement quota systems for minority students. In this way, the Supreme Court was able to continue promoting gains for minorities through affirmative action while limiting issues of reverse …show more content…

For example, the highest court decided the last major case, Fisher v. University of Texas, in 2016 and upheld their use of affirmative action. Citizens and government workers continue to discuss the use of affirmative action. People argue whether the issue of race or gender has any bearing on applications for colleges or jobs, and whether school boards or management should deny admission or jobs to well-qualified candidate in an effort to promote and increase diversity. Just in January 2018, Google faced a lawsuit of discriminating against men in applications by utilizing a quota system, while simultaneously being sued for paying women unfairly to men. The complexity of affirmative action programs and achieving diversity and equality tends to singularly divide along the line of the privileged and entitled individuals versus those that have a history of being oppressed. Entitlement disorder can explain why white men are the group most opposed to reverse discrimination. Given that more white men are conservative than liberal, there is no question why this issue became politicized, but identifying when it became politicized is more

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