The Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

Affirmative action refers to policies established to benefit the under-represented minorities in the fields of education, employment and culture. This is meant to avert the historical discrimination on the basis of religion, color, national origin or sex during hiring process. Implementation of these policies may encompass preferential selection in the job market. This results in mixed reactions and opinions from the public generating a lot of controversies.

The progress, justification and contesting of preferential affirmative action has ensued in two ways. The first is administrative and legal systems. Departments of government, courts and legislatures have formulated and implemented guidelines calling for affirmative action. The other is public discussion, where the policy of preferential management has generated many controversies. The two pathways make inadequate interaction, with the public arguments not based in any prevailing lawful practices.

The controversy began around 1972 and shaped off after 1980.After many years of subjugation, it seemed irrational to evaluate blacks by the same standards as whites. In 1990s there was renaissance of the discussion which led to the USA Supreme Court's verdict in 2003 to uphold definite types of affirmative action. The first debates involved gender and racial inclinations since affirmative action was mostly about the factory, corporate and college grounds. Later the controversy became all about ethnicity and race. This is because at the start of the 21st century African-Americans and Hispanics needed help in admission to certain colleges. The fundamental principle of affirmative action was fairness. Examples of affirmative action presented by the United States Department of Labor con...

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...on the actual implementation of preferences. Students should be able to know the variances used to in admissions and levels of academic training needed. This will help reduce the mismatching.

Learning institutions should also not use race as a basis of preference at the expense of socioeconomic preferences. They should also not use race-based scholarships rather use need based ones. This will lead to more honest policies and enquiries.

I’m not cancelling the fact that discrimination still exists in the United States. I believe there is a big difference between equal opportunity and affirmative action. I would rather earn my achievements based on my merits than have gotten lucky based on a quota system. There is nothing more proud than being a minority and knowing your hard work paid off. It’s the 21st century; everyone should have an equal opportunity to succeed.