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Inequality in american education
Affirmative action on racial equality
Inequality in american education
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“Race” into Society
Get ready… Get set… Go! Students across America compete in a race for college admittance, however, some students are given a head start that some students don’t have access to. These head starts are economic and racial advantages. Why is it fair that some students get larger head starts than others, or none at all? The answer is: it’s not. When you’re born, you are automatically given an amount of privilege, whether it be racial or economic. Sometimes, you 're born with no privilege at all and have to work extra hard to cross the finish line at the same time as other students. The only way to level the playing field is affirmative action, a program put in place to break down barriers for minority students. Affirmative
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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 …show more content…
Minorities, such as African Americans, have been oppressed for hundreds of years, dating back to the time our country was formed. Affirmative action doesn’t only mend the wrongdoings of the past, but helps fix wrongdoings in the present and future. Job applicants with white-sounding names get called back twice as much than applicants with ethnic-sounding names, even when they have the same exact resumes. This is due to systemic racism. Systemic racism is based on the fact that the “United States was founded as a racist society, and thus embedded in all social institutions, structures, and relations within our society.”. This means, that throughout history, white people have been favored by government and other institutions while minorities have been oppressed. Black Americans make up thirteen percent of the world’s population, but only hold 2.6 percent of the world’s wealth, while white people make up seventy seven percent of the population and hold ninety percent of the world’s wealth. A black female’s median wealth is $120 compared to a white female with $41,000. This wage gap is absolutely shocking and only possible because of systemic racism. Redlining is an example of a discriminatory policy. Redlining is the practice of banks and real estate agents turning away minority families from predominantly white neighborhoods. This is an example of institutionalized racism. The practice of redlining led to the kind of job you
Discrimination is still a chronic global issue, and drastic inequalities still exist at the present time. Thus, the Affirmative Action Law is an important tool to many minorities most especially to women, and people of color, for the reason that this program provides an equality on educational, and professional opportunities for every qualified individual living in the United States. Without this program, a higher education would have been impossible for a “minority students” to attain. Additionally, without the Affirmative Action, a fair opportunity to have a higher-level career...
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.
Even though Black music such as blues did not end oppression, it helped rehabilitate the oppressed by creating a new identity through music such as blues. The Social construction of racial formation categorized racial groups to construct their social identity. A form of this basis is determined from skin color or skin pigment. Black music such as blues were used as a form of arts to escape the oppression that was placed upon them based on their skin color.
Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled against the use of race in the college admissions process in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas. Since then, affirmative action has become a big issue in the media; however, many people still do not even know what affirmative action is. Affirmative action is a policy to prevent discrimination on the basis of “color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Overall, it favors minorities that are often discriminated. It might sound like an excellent policy; however, the use of this policy in the college admissions process is prejudice. In the college admissions process, affirmative action lowers the standards for some races, while raising the standard for other races. For example, an Asian might need a SAT score of 2300 to be considered for admission at a top school such as Yale and a white applicant might need a score of 2100, while an African American or Hispanic only needs a score of 1700. While affirmative action provides equality in the workplace, it has no place in the college admissions process and should, therefore, be abolished and replaced. This type of policy can be repealed completely, replaced with a college admissions process that favors first generation college applicants, or replaced with a policy based on an applicant’s socioeconomic status.
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 topic of discussion for a long time, but only recently has it become such a major controversy. It is generally agreed on that affirmative action became a real topic of debate around 1964 during the civil rights movement. Even the definition of affirmative action is controversial; this is addressed by Antwi-Boasiako, Kwame Badue, and Joseph Osagba. They provide two primary definitions of affirmative action. The first says that the purpose of affirmative action is to right the wrongs of past discrimination. The second is that affirmative action works much like a “quota system,” i.e. schools are required to have certain levels of diversity in their schools. To reach that diversity schools use affirmative action, allowing in less qualified minorities to promote diversity.
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.
Our daily lives are affected by race whether we are aware of it or not. How we live different aspects of our lives depend on the colour of our skin. From the types of jobs we have, the income we earn, where we live etc. In societies fundamentally structured by race, it is important that we do not abandon the notion of race, but instead pioneer a revolution in the way that races are understood. In this paper, I will examine how the dominant groups in society define race in terms of biology, which leads to the notion of white privilege, which is their advantaged position in society, at the expense of other racial groups.
Today there is considerable disagreement in the country over Affirmative Action with the American people. MSNBC reported a record low in support for Affirmative Action with 45% in support and 45% opposing (Muller, 2013). The affirmative action programs have afforded all genders and races, exempting white males, a sense of optimism and an avenue to get the opportunities they normally would not be eligible for. This advantage includes admission in colleges or hiring preferences with public and private jobs; although Affirmative Action has never required quotas the government has initiated a benefits program for the schools and companies that elect to be diversified. The advantages that are received by the minorities’ only take into account skin color, gender, disability, etc., are what is recognized as discriminatory factors. What is viewed as racism to the majority is that there ar...
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.
Race relations are always a scary or uncomfortable topic for people to discuss amongst groups of different ethnicities and racial identities. It is a long standing tradition in the United States to walk a fine line and use politically correct terms in the above mentioned setting but to feel perfectly comfortable to speak freely when in a setting surrounded by likeminded people who share similar political affiliations and race. This is the main reason discussions surrounding the idea of race are too often avoided in today’s school systems and in society in general. If we are to encourage our students and children to be free thinking future citizens of our global society, we must first become one ourselves. The only way to accomplish this
Diversity is a must have when it comes to colleges and universities. Diversity is what separates the good universities from the great universities. Universities that have diversity help out their students more than anyone could imagine. It help students get ready to open up and understand one another on a more personal level. Some students grow up in segregated towns where there is not much diversity, but with the help of diversity from colleges, students will learn to learn and accept one another. It would be fresh new start for all of the students to learn about each other and their similarities and differences. The information college students could learn from someone that is from another culture is a great prize and will be remembered for the rest of their lives. “Diversity will further strengthen the United States as new minds with new views are added to the society. This is true of the country’s universities and colleges, as well”(Milligan).
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....
Racism is one of the major issues in the world today. Many people are not aware of racism still existing in schools. It is obvious that racism is bad as it was many decades ago but it sure has not gone away. Racism very much exists and it is about time that people need to start thinking about solutions to this matter. Many people believe that it depends on if a person was brought into the world as a racist or not but that is not the case at all. In fact, an individual cannot be born a racist but only learn to become one as they grow from child to adulthood.
A large problem in America has always been racial issues and still continues to be prevalent in our society today. The United States likes to boast its reputation as a “melting-pot” as many cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds are mixed together, yet the country still continues to isolate individuals based on race. In the constitution, it says that everyone is supposed to have equal rights and liberties, yet after over 200 years, many minorities still struggle to obtain the same respect and equality that their white counterparts have always have. Laws should be created to enforce equality and justice for racial groups.