Table of Contents
1) Introduction
2) Public Support
3) White’s lose out?
4) Advancement
5) Discrimination
6) Self-Esteem
7) Social Engineering
8) Equal Opportunities
9) Progress
10) Color Blind
11) Preferential Selection
12) Conclusion
13) Bibliography
Introduction
Affirmative action is one of the most widely debated social policies ever brought about by the American government. The biggest problems facing affirmative action and its constituents are the attitudes of its opposition. These attitudes come from a long history of racism that has been passed on from generation to generation. They also stem from lack of education and lack of understanding of the way affirmative action effects the people involved emotionally, financially, and in status. Affirmative action is a policy implemented in order to artificially install equality between white males and minorities over time. Affirmative action cannot be expected to cure the problems of inequality in a matter of years, it will take decades to fix these deep-rooted problems of society. It is a necessary, yet imperfect remedy for an intractable social disease. The case against affirmative action is a weak one, resting heavily on myth and misunderstanding. This report will outline many of the most popular myths in the case against affirmative action. The information in this report was derived from public opinion polls done by the government and private sources. The first myth is that the public does not support affirmative action anymore. Some believe that a large percentage of white workers will lose out if affirmative action stays in place. Another misunderstanding is that Jews and Asians shared the same hardships, and if they can advance rapidly, why can’t African Americans? Another misleading statement is that you can’t cure discrimination with discrimination. Some think that affirmative action tends to destroy the self-esteem of women and African Americans. Some people think that affirmative a...
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Affirmative action is a label for a large range of programs, but all of these methods began for one reason: as a way to fight racism. There were voluntary efforts and mandatory laws enacted in order to accomplish this feat (Wu par 6). It was begun under President Johnson with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was followed by his Executive Order 11246, both of which emphasized the fair treatment and employment of minorities. Two years later, women were added to the list. Today affirmative action benefits women, racial and ethnic groups, and the physically, mentally or emotionally disabled to the detriment of white males (“affirmative action” par 1). Due to affirmative action’s efforts, doors have been opened allowing for the equalizing of opportunity in the United States, seen in the types of people working in places such as police and fire departments, as w...
It is an undeniable fact that many groups in the world are of a disadvantaged nature. Over the course of history, unfairness has spread far and wide in the forms of slavery, discrimination, war, and conquest. Unfortunately, rectifying these issues in a modern age is no easy task. Although in present day American society we have abolished slavery, given all races and genders the opportunity to vote, and eliminated restrictions on who can receive an education, it is extremely difficult for some to generationally climb out of the pit of injustice. As a result of this historical discrimination, many human beings are placed in a disadvantaged state economically. At the same time; however, there are many of an economically disadvantaged state whose ancestors have never received discrimination, as well as affluent families whose ancestors have. Affirmative action, also known as positive discrimination, was part of an executive order signed by President Kennedy in the 1960s as a solution to problems faced only by the former group. Ultimately, affirmative action is an injustice in itself that causes more problems than it hinders. In my essay, I plan to deconstruct three common arguments for affirmative action while providing two decent arguments against it. Affirmative action is supposed to positively discriminate instead of negatively, but it is possible to create a system without discrimination at all.
The policy of affirmative action was created to promote equal opportunity in the workfield, however the policy has its own issues as it has produced lots of controversies since its inception. In particular, opponents of Affirmative action argues against the real effects of affirmative action and skeptical whether societal disparities in employment opportunities and incomes were simply the outcome of socioeconomic labelling, hence the effectiveness of affirmative action to address the disparities was also brought into questioning. Moreover the policy is also controversial in that it does, to a certain extent, exert discriminatory racial tension because it discriminates against non-minority groups. Therefore this essay will discuss some of the issues related to the controversial policy as well as explore some of the underlying causes of the policy and assessment of some of its measured benefits.
Subconscious prejudices, self-segregation, political correctness, reverse discrimination, and ignorance all wade in the pool of opinions surrounding affirmative action and racial animosity. With racial tensions ever present in this country, one might question whether the problems can be solved by affirmative action.
The hierarchy of needs is frequently represented in the shape of a pyramid and is broken up into 5 separate stages with the main, most important levels of necessities at the bottom and the need for self-actualization
Affirmative action has been the topic of debate for many years. It has been controversial because it has been said to be a form of reverse discrimination. This paper will discuss the purpose behind affirmative action, as well as, its various strengths and weaknesses. Also, this paper will look at the following issues surrounding affirmative action such as the incompetency myth ( are companies hiring less qualified people?), the impact on employment (what has changed in the work place?), the impact on women (how have their lives changed?) and the impact on employment law (what documents back up affirmative action?). Lastly, a discussion of affirmative action on an international scale, and what international documents have to say about the topic. The purpose of this paper is to bring to light all the issues, and then make an educated statement of whether affirmative action is a worthwhile activity or if there is a better solution.
Cohen, Carl. "Affirmative Action in Admissions Harms College Students.” 1998. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. University Library. IUPUI, Indianapolis. 14 Nov. 2004. < http://galenet.galegroup.com.proxy.ulib.iupui.edu/servlet/
In today’s society, the pressure to appear politically correct can play a major role in one’s social life. This pressure can even trigger people to support issues that are politically correct, such as affirmative action. Affirmative action is a highly controversial issue in the United States today, it has many supporters and it also has many detractors. This issue can separate many ethnic groups and even turn people of the same racial group against each other. There are many ideas that are thought of as a cure for racial inequality, but none fit the role better than affirmative action.
3.The term Affirmative action has played a huge role in the past one hundred years of American politics. It is simply defined as an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer. Civil Rights of American citizens have drastically changed because of Affirmative action. With almost anything in politics, there is a debate for and against Affirmative action. Supporters of this say that this helps encourage e...
After long years of suffering, degradation, and different sorts of discrimination which the disadvantaged group of people had experienced, the “Affirmative Action Law” was finally passed and enforced for the very first time on September 24, 1965. The central purpose of the Affirmative Action Law is to combat racial inequality and to give equal civil rights for each citizen of the United States, most especially for the minorities. However, what does true equality mean? Is opportunity for everyone? In an article entitled, “None of this is fair”, the author, Mr. Richard Rodriguez explains how his ethnicity did not become a hindrance but instead, the law became beneficial. However, Mr. Richard Rodriguez realized the unfairness of the “Affirmative Action” to people who are more deserving of all the opportunities that were being offered to him. Through Mr. Rodriguez’s article, it will demonstrates to the reader both favorable, and adverse reaction of the people to the Affirmative Action, that even though the program was created with the intention to provide equality for each and every citizen, not everyone will be pleased, contented, and benefit from the law.
Pursuing this further, in the beginning, from the sociological perspective, affirmative action was approved in order to reprimand the African Americans who have suffered from discrimination through the years. Now this policy has spread to all minorities and are now seen as quotas where one minority has an advantage over another. That is why there are many people who do not agree with affirmative action. Certain groups can create an opportunity for themselves and only gain advantages that the p...
Emotion is the “feeling” aspect of consciousness that includes physical, behavioral, and subjective (cognitive) elements. Emotion also contains three elements which are physical arousal, a certain behavior that can reveal outer feelings and inner feelings. One key part in the brain, the amygdala which is located within the limbic system on each side of the brain, plays a key role in emotional processing which causes emotions such as fear and pleasure to be involved with the human facial expressions.The common-sense theory of emotion states that an emotion is experienced first, leading to a physical reaction and then to a behavioral reaction.The James-Lange theory states that a stimulus creates a physiological response that then leads to the labeling of the emotion. The Cannon-Bard theory states that the physiological reaction and the emotion both use the thalamus to send sensory information to both the cortex of the brain and the organs of the sympathetic nervous system. The facial feedback hypothesis states that facial expressions provide feedback to the brain about the emotion being expressed on the face, increasing all the emotions. In Schachter and Singer’s cognitive arousal theory, also known as the two-factor theory, states both the physiological arousal and the actual arousal must occur before the emotion itself is experienced, based on cues from the environment. Lastly, in the cognitive-mediational theory
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...
Motivation is therefore the force that transforms and uplifts people to be productive and perform in their jobs. Maximising an employee's motivation is necessary and vital to successfully accomplish the organisation's objectives and targets. However this is a considerable challenge to any organisation's managers, due to the complexity of motivation and the fact that there is no ready made solution or an answer to what motivates people to work well (Mullins, 2002).
According to this theory, human brain gets a special message and it evokes the experience of emotion. At that time, the autonomic nervous system also gets a special message that can cause physiological excitation. There were a lot of examples during my life when I experience the emotions due to the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion. For instance, I begin to tremble every time when I see lizards or other reptiles as I am afraid of them a lot.