Why Affirmative Action Is Wrong

Indeed, Affirmative action is a highly debatable topic that is sought to cover many employment factors favoring all groups in society, including those classified by race, religion, gender and national origin. Supported by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Affirmative Action was designed in the 1960s to benefit racial/ethnic minority group members and women, and particularly black Americans” (Oppenheimer, 2016). While it might encourage minority success against institutional racism in employment, Affirmative Action can be perceived as highly controversial because it “challenges fundamental American beliefs” (Skerry, 1998). For this particular reason, I am convinced that Affirmative action is categorically unnecessary as it

Meritocracy implies that individuals ought to succeed in life by working hard through ability and determination, “not on who they are or whom they know” (Peterson, 96). In ‘Profession’, Richard Rodriguez believed that Affirmative Action labeled all minority individuals, including him, as “more socially disadvantaged than the white graduate students in my classes.”. (Rodriguez, 157). For him, Affirmative Action was defined as favoring “the presence of conventionally qualified nonwhite students like me” who needed a social ‘boost’ to keep up with the majority students. (Rodriguez, 156). However, Rodriguez was afraid of portraying himself as a minority student who gained success with the assistance of Affirmative Action. After all, mentioned that the political activists utilized his success, accompanied with his race, to present lower-class Hispanics. “I was the minority student the political activists shouted about at noontime rallies,.A dean said he was certain that after I graduated I would be able to work among ‘my people’ ”(Rodriguez, 157, 158). It is safe to note that Rodriguez was against affirmative Action due to the idea that it would devalue the hard work that nonwhite students put in to represent their individuality in the midst of the disadvantaged minorities in the

For instance, “Inequities by race/ethnicity have long been a problem in U.S. society” (Zamani-Gallaher, 32). Despite the controversies that may occur, Affirmative Action searches to “promote the redistribution of opportunity” (Kellough, 8). To provide an example, African-Americans have long encountered disparities and institutional racism. In Howard University, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson addressed that “ You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.” (Katznelson, 541). In respect to this, Affirmative Action was designed to provide equal treatment between African-Americans and white during the beginning of the 1960s. However, I am not convinced that this particular program is necessary today, Richard Rodriguez, in ‘Profession’, stated that “Many were so culturally alienated that they never thought to apply; they couldn’t even imagine themselves going to college”(Rodriguez, 154). He implied that many minorities, despite the privileges that exist in favor to them, never utilize the opportunity to succeed, thus viewing Affirmative Action as