American history has its wrongs when they established slavery which that then led to ingraining institutionalize racism through Jim Crow laws and segregation. Even though those things happened in the past they are still implemented through the current wrongdoings of the War on Drugs and police brutality against black Americans, affirmative action has been put in place to compensate black Americans. In this essay, I will explain what preferential affirmative action is, the compensatory argument for preferential affirmative, the main moral principle that it relies on, and why the argument is ultimately successful. I will also consider objections and show why those arguments fail. A general description of what affirmative action is a policy that establishes a way for businesses and universities to increase minority applicants to diversify their institutions. However, the preferential affirmative action is a way for institutions to give preferences to minorities in the selecting process (Leary). Even so, preferential affirmative action can be seen in two different perspectives. A strong preferential affirmative action is where a less qualified minority applicant is preferred or chosen over than a non-minority who is more qualified. On the other hand, a weak preferential affirmative action is where both applicants—a minority and a …show more content…
The argument goes on saying that yes, black Americans suffer from the injustices that happened to them in the past, but white Americans benefit from the past sufferings and injustices that happened to black Americans. Ultimately, when white Americans benefit from the injustices and still do in modern America, they should compensate black
However, Coates, in his article points out that white people robbed, unkindly treated, and misused African American people. He argues that the “Case for Reparations” will give chances for black African American to have a better future and forget their past. Also he argues that white people crated the damages to the blacks and they need to know how to care and abolish those wrong things that the white people had done to the black African
Alternatively, since it was initially the ancestors of Caucasian’s that enslaved African’s their descendents should not have to compensate African Americans for what they performed. The descendents did not have any direct involvement in any way and can not change the actions of their past and should not be held liable. If Caucasian’s were to give reparations to African Americans how would they know for a fact they were giving it to the descendant of a slave? Most African Americans can not trace their hi...
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...
Media plays an essential role in shaping the opinions of society. Writers tend to be selective in the information they provide, manipulating the truth in order to support their own perspective. By placing any given topic under certain light, writers have the power to control the audience’s response and lead them to form an opinion based on their experience with the information. On the other hand, readers have a tendency to readily and automatically accept this information without much thought, despite the possibility that the information they are absorbing is false or biased. Thus, the cycle of perpetuation of misinformation continues; the media feeds the masses false information, and they eat it up.This problem is evident in the topic of affirmative
In the article, Coates maintains that social, economic, and political injustices against blacks have compounded over the years: “Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy.” He argues that even though slavery and segregation ended, these inequities have crippled many black communities and left them on an uneven playing field—only reparations can even this field.
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.
The main claim of the article is that African Americans have been treated unfairly throughout history and are still being treated unfairly compared to Caucasians. One of the reasons given in support of the claim is “In the early 20th century, civil rights groups documented cases in which African-Americans died horrible deaths after being turned away from hospitals reserved for whites, or were lynched — which meant being hanged, burned or dismembered — in front of enormous crowds that had gathered to enjoy the sight.” (Editorial Board, screen 3) Another reason given in support of the claim comes from the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. saying “The dead have something to say to a complacent federal government that cuts back-room deals with Southern Dixiecrats, as well as to every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice.” (Editorial Board, screen 3) The argument consisted of several components such as quotes from famous activists and referring to historical events involving African Americans being victims. The components are presented in a certain order with the historical events coming first, the quotes from famous activists coming second, and the overall explanation of the Black Lives Matter movement coming
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.
There are no living slaves so it is impossible to compensate the people who were hurt by the cruel and oppressive practice of slavery. So, would we compensate black Americans in general for the theory that slavery has held them back? Blaming the economic problems someone has today on something that happened to his ancestors almost a century and a half ago seems like one heck of a stretch, but let’s say we buy into the argument.” (2014). Just as Hawkins is saying, there is no way to be sure that these people were truly impacted by slavery, and it would be unfair to give a mass amount of help to those who do not deserve it.
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.
Introduction Known as one of the biggest obstacles in higher education to date would arguably be the use of affirmative action within the higher education admission process for both private and public institutions (Kaplin & Lee, 2014; Wang & Shulruf, 2012). The focus of current research is an attempt to either justify or deny the use of affirmative action within current practices through various higher education institutions, and though any one person could potentially be swayed to side with the rationale to maintain its use or disregard, the facts are quite clear that the future of this practice is unclear. Therefore, this essay will present current research in an attempt to determine if affirmative action should continue to be used within college admission decisions. What is Affirmative Action?
In conclusion, despite the popular belief that blacks deserve reparations for their past treatment, our country cannot and should not afford them special treatment on
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....