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The Importance Of Affirmative Action
Strengths and weaknesses of affirmative action
Race inequality in the united states
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As a Christian, I believe in trying my hardest to empathize with those in suffering and oppression to the best of my all to human ability. If I am honest with myself and God, more often than not I fail. My experiences in History 313: Black American History, have left an indelible impact on me. One of the ongoing themes in our readings, lectures, videos and discussions has concerned Christianity and the Black American experience. Thus, I thought it fitting to write this paper looking at affirmative action through a Christian perspective. Looking at affirmative action’s original intent and ultimate goals from a Christian perspective is extremely fruitful because it allows honest discussion to take place without fear of partisan bias or special privilege for one race over another, which in turn makes it easier to talk about practical solutions.
Before I say anything else, I would like to say three very important things. First, I am not African-American. Second, I believe all people are people. And third, I in no way, shape or form represent all Christian views on this topic. Speaking for all Christianity is beyond my ability no matter what the topic. My experiences are just like anyone else’s in that they are unique, but limited. Thus, I can only speak of being Christian personally in America. And even then, I cannot speak for all of American Christianity because I only know what it feels like to be an American Christian with German, Norwegian and Swedish blood running through my veins. However, if I employ empathy and compassion I can have at least some idea of the suffering that exists when it occurs to someone besides myself, especially since my own spiritual journey has been anything but smooth. And though ...
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...re much to big to be fixed by a short essay. As mentioned before I am not African-American. Thus, I do not consider my thoughts authoritative on this subject. Still, I believe that people, regardless of the color of our skin, our willing to do as Jesus did and forgive one another for past transgressions and replace hostility with love for the sake of a brighter future. James Baldwin urged his readers to, “Cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.” In that spirit I close with a quote from a speech given by Robert F. Kennedy on the night that Martin Luther King Jr. was tragically and unnecessarily shot and killed.
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
To wrap it up, African Americans lived an unfair past in the south, such as Alabama, during the 1930s because of discrimination and the misleading thoughts towards them. The Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws and the way they were generally treated in southern states all exemplify this merciless time period of the behavior towards them. They were not given the same respect, impression, and prospect as the rest of the citizens of America, and instead they were tortured. Therefore, one group should be never singled out and should be given the same first intuition as the rest of the people, and should never be judged by color, but instead by character.
Being African American has never been easy. At birth, we are born with a target on our backs for simply being a different color and whites are born privileged. One would think that when slavery was abolished that the target would be removed but that isn’t so. King states in his article that “…white supremacy saturated public culture...”
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.
majority, does not advance the cause of minorities in a meaningful way, and needs to be
I believe the best place to start this essay would be with an explanation of Black Power. Black Power according to James H. Cone “is an emotionally charged term that can evoke either angry rejection or passionate acceptance.” Critics see it as blacks hating whites, while advocates see Black Power as the only viable option for black people. Advocates see Black Power meaning black people are taking a dominate role in deciding what the black-white relationship should be in American Society. Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. is preaching this right now. He sees that blacks need to go back to their blackness and no longer live their lives as the white society wants them to.
Discrimination in the United States came to an end 54 years ago, or did it? Most are aware of the ethnic and sexual discrimination that plagued the United States from its founding years until 1960. White males primarily were the people in charge of making all the government and business decisions impacting the country. Even though slavery ended in 1865 and females played a significant role in the home, blacks and females voices were not considered for important decision making events. In this paper I will outline Lisa Newton’s argument towards reverse discrimination, a professor of philosophy at Fairfield University; she argues that “reverse discrimination
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, affirmative action is “an active effort to improve employment or educational opportunities for members of minority groups and women.” However, despite its well-intentioned policies, it has been the source of much controversy over the years. Barbara Scott and Mary Ann Schwartz mention that “proponents of affirmative action argue that given that racism and discrimination are systemic problems, their solutions require institutional remedies such as those offered by affirmative action legislation” (298). Also, even though racism is no longer direct, indirect forms still exist in society and affirmative action helps direct. On the other hand, opponents to affirm...
In our world, today there are many different cultures with their own beliefs, values, morals, and challenges. With each of those things comes diversity between all of the different cultures and ethnic groups. Each culture is unique in its own way. African Americans are one of the many ethnic groups found around the world and right here in the United States of America. They are descendants of both African culture and American-European culture, as they were both ethnic groups enslaved during 17th and 18th centuries. Since they are descendants of both cultures, they have a mix of aspects from each. The African American population in 2000 was 34,675,985 and grew to 41,359,936 by 2017. That is a large amount of growth for an ethnic group in the
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.
When people talk about the civil rights movement, the first thing that comes to mind is the famous speech “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King. His dream in short was to have equality among human beings. For the past thirty years, this country has been revolutionizing humanitarianism because there is greater concern for human welfare than one hundred years ago. The revolution began during the 1960’s, and during that era this country was drastically involved in changing the civil rights of minority groups. From this concern, a program called affirmative action evolved. Like other civil right movements, the affirmative action movement was implemented to promote equality.
The aspect of African-American Studies is key to the lives of African-Americans and those involved with the welfare of the race. African-American Studies is the systematic and critical study of the multidimensional aspects of Black thought and practice in their current and historical unfolding (Karenga, 21). African-American Studies exposes students to the experiences of African-American people and others of African descent. It allows the promotion and sharing of the African-American culture. However, the concept of African-American Studies, like many other studies that focus on a specific group, gender, and/or creed, poses problems. Therefore, African-American Studies must overcome the obstacles in order to improve the state of being for African-Americans.
Many African Americans were forced to live in poverty, because the events of neo-slavery after Post-Civil War, resulted to seemingly unavoidable poverty, given that their economic and social wellbeing were mostly influenced by the decisions of the whites, rather than the their own decisions. Hence, the many blacks become the stagnant component of the United States society; because even though after they gained freedom they were depicted ‘free people’, in reality they were still the same people not free from slavery, as a result most of them languished in poverty. I believe that this actions of enslaving African Americans through this system is what has led to the present state of things whereby many blacks are still poor because just like in the post-civil war times different forms of enslaving blacks have been put in place for example imprisoning through racial profiling and the concentrating of blacks in inner cities where there are not that many resources such as good schools, social facilities and good jobs which leads to crime and wasting of these people and a criminal justice system that seems to work against black
Nearly three centuries ago, black men and women from Africa were brought to America and put into slavery. They were treated more cruelly in the United States than in any other country that had practiced slavery. African Americans didn’t gain their freedom until after the Civil War, nearly one-hundred years later. Even though African Americans were freed and the constitution was amended to guarantee racial equality, they were still not treated the same as whites and were thought of as second class citizens. One man had the right idea on how to change America, Martin Luther King Jr. had the best philosophy for advancing civil rights, he preached nonviolence to express the need for change in America and he united both African Americans and whites together to fight for economic and social equality.