Pros on Affirmative Action
Affirmative action refers to a variety of programs and policies that are race, gender, national origin, and ethnicity conscious. Such programs are targeting women and minorities that had suffered discrimination in the past. History tells us that women and minorities suffered severe discriminations until the middle of 20th century. Women and minorities were treated as inferiors and subordinate status. According to Gilroy, "women were not allowed to enter entire areas of employment such as mining, fire fighting, law, and medicine." They were not even allowed to vote until the early 1920s. The racial segregation in one form or another forced American Indians, African Americans and Latinos into low-wage, dead-end jobs. No one can deny this historical truth, not even opponents of affirmative action reluctantly admit this (Gilroy 79).
Critics of affirmative action have argued that because of affirmative action, white males are discriminated against as a group. They call this a "reverse discrimination." This argument sounds somewhat believable but it is simply wrong if we look at the facts. Women and minorities today are still significantly underrated in spite of the enforcement of affirmative action programs. 'According to a 1995 government report, white males hold 95 percent of senior management positions although they make up only 29 percent of the workforce. White males are still, by a great margin, over represented in most high st...
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...
majority, does not advance the cause of minorities in a meaningful way, and needs to be
Cultural Competency is fundamentally linked with the principles of social justice and human rights because it provides the nurses with the opportunity to develop interpersonal skills to provide equal care despite one’s cultural background. However, using the principles of social justice and human rights to educate nurses allows them to learn how to negotiate cultural differences. Removing their own cultural filters, and seeing events through the eyes of those who are culturally different accomplish this. An embedded experience, in which nurses interact with various cultures, would encourage them to adopt Cultural Competency knowledge (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2008).
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...
Integrating the framework will enable nurses to become culturally competent health care providers. First and foremost, the framework permit patients’ the opportunity to express their concerns and perception of their problem (Campinha-Bacote, 2011). Additionally, it focuses on incorporating the patients beliefs, values, and needs into the plan of care. The framework further give nurses an opportunity to better understand and evaluate their patients’ concerns. Campinha-Bacote (2011) reported that continuous encounters with culturally diverse backgrounds will lead nurses to validate, refine, or modify what they know of existing values, beliefs, and practices of a cultural group. This in turn, will develop into cultural desire, cultural awareness, and cultural knowledge. With the end result, being cultural
Providing culturally competent care is a vital responsibility of a nurse’s role in healthcare. “Culturally competent care means conveying acceptance of the patient’s health beliefs while sharing information, encouraging self-efficiency, and strengthening the patients coping resources” (Giddens, 2013). Competence is achieved through and ongoing process of understanding another culture and learning to accept and respect the differences.
The roots of affirmative action may be traced back to the early 1960’s, during the Civil Rights Movement. It was in 1961 that President John F. Kennedy issued an Executive Order that first introduced affirmative action. This order included an establishment that government contractors “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated fairly during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” (University of California Irvine) Over the years, there have been many adjustments to affirmative action, but they all reiterated the same general idea. This idea is that there would be equal opportunity for all qualified persons, and to take positive actions in order to ensure there would be equal opportunity for all. (University of California Irvine) Affirmative action has been successful, it has increased the number of recruiting and screening practices by employers, raised employers’ inclination to hire denounced applicants, increased the number of minority or female applicants and employees, and it increased the likelihood that employers will provide training and evaluate 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 in the United States is a government program that tries to help overcome the effects of past societal discrimination by allocating jobs and resources to members of specific minority groups (The Columbia 1). The policy was set up to assist every single minority group, which includes women, minority races, handicapped people, and war veterans, especially those of the Vietnam War. Affirmative Action was set up to help these minority groups by giving them strategic advantages when those individuals apply for jobs and higher levels of education. In the Washington Post, it said that, "In its modern form, Affirmative Action can call for an admissions officer faced with two similarly qualified applicants to choose the minority over the white, or for a manager to recruit and hire a qualified woman for a job instead of a man" (Froom...
Dreher, M. and MacNaughton, N. (2002). Cultural competence in nursing: Foundation or fallacy?. Nursing Outlook, 50(5), pp.181-186.
A nurse can improve his or her direct patient care by integrating cultural competence into their method of care. The first step to developing cultural sensitivity is to examine and know oneself. One way of developing sensitivity is to assess, where one stands, in regards to culture. There are cultural assessment strategies for nurses and healthcare workers available. Campinha-Bacote, (2002) developed the Model of Cultural Competence, which is a series of questions that help to determine if a nurse is open to enhancing their cultural knowledge. Once determined if the desire is there, other assessments are be taken into consideration in...
The novel, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway is an example of how an entire generation redefined gender roles after being affected by the war. The Lost Generation of the 1920’s underwent a great significance of change that not only affected their behaviors and appearances but also how they perceived gender identity. Lady Brett Ashley and Jake Barnes are two of the many characters in the novel that experience shattered gender roles because of the post war era. The characters in the novel live a lifestyle in which drugs and alcohol are used to shadow emotions and ideals of romanticism. Brett’s lack of emotional connection to her various lovers oppose Jake’s true love for her which reveals role reversal in gender and the redefinition of masculinity and femininity. The man is usually the one that is more emotionally detached but in this case Lady Brett Ashley has a masculine quality where as Jake has a feminine quality. Both men and female characters in the novel do not necessarily fit their gender roles in society due to the post war time period and their constant partying and drinking. By analyzing Brett, Jake, and the affects the war had on gender the reader obtains a more axiomatic understanding of how gender functions in the story by examining gender role reversal and homosexuality.
The term culture is defined as “the thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups” (Potter & Perry, 2013). With the increase of culturally diverse populations in the United States, it is important for nurses to practice cultural competence. Cultural competence is the ability to acquire specific behaviors, skills, attitudes, and policies in a system that permits “effective work in a cross-cultural setting” (OMH, 2013). Being culturally competent is essential because nurses who acknowledges and respects a patient’s health beliefs and practices are more likely to have positive health outcomes (OMH, 2012). Every culture has certain views and attitudes concerning health. The Jewish (also referred to as Jews), in particular, have intriguing health practices and beliefs that health care providers need to be aware of.
Cultural competence for advanced practice nurses is defined as the willingness or the desire to understand another person’s culture, the ability to learn about a diverse cultural belief systems, and to work effectively as a healthcare professional understanding the dynamics of the patient’s culture as it relates to their relationships, care, and overall health. Awareness of one’s own culture, along with the understanding of other cultures, and how that relates to nursing care is essential to improve outcomes for patients (Kardong-Edgren et al., 2010). This paper will review a personal account of my cultural awareness and cultural beliefs. Cultural competence will be discussed as it relates to nursing theory and application
Cultural competence can be defined as using the ability of one’s awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill to effectively interact with a patient’s many cultural differences. Madeline Leininger, a pioneer on transcultural nursing describes it this way; “a formal area of study and practice focused on comparative human-care differences and similarities of the beliefs, values and patterned lifeways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care to people” (Barker, 2009, p. 498). The importance of cultural diversity in healthcare allows for the delivery of appropriate cultural autonomy. Showing respect for others will lead to trust between nurse and patient which in turn improves healing and health.