American Society Needs Affirmative Action

1843 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What are the advantages and disadvantages of affirmative action

American Society Needs Affirmative Action

Affirmative action has been the subject of increasing debate and tension in

American society. However, the debate over affirmative action has become

ensnared in rhetoric that pits equality of opportunity against the equality of

results. The debate has been more emotional than intellectual, and has generated

more tension than shed light on the issue. Participants in the debate have over

examined the ethical and moral issues that affirmative action raises while

forgetting to scrutinize the system that has created the need for them. Too

often, affirmative action is looked upon as the panacea for a nation once ill

with, but now cured of, the virulent disease of racial discrimination.

Affirmative action is, and should be seen as, a temporary, partial, and perhaps

even flawed remedy for past and continuing discrimination against historically

marginalized and disenfranchised groups in American society. Working as it

should, it affords groups greater equality of opportunity in a social context

marked by substantial inequalities and structural forces that impede a fair

assessment of their capabilities.

In this essay I will expose what I see as the shortcomings of the current

ethical attacks on affirmative action (1), the main one being, that these

attacks are devoid of proper historical context and shrouded in white male

hegemony and privilege. Then, I will discuss the moral and ethical issues raised

by continuing to function within a system that systematically disadvantages

historically marginalized groups. With that as a backdrop, I will make a

positive case for continuing affirmative action programs and discuss the

practic...

... middle of paper ...

...ainly valid, qualifications to

the table that are not recognized under our current system of merit.

Notes:

1. While it is true that Affirmative action programs address the concerns of a wide range of Americans who confront discrimination, the debate is often understood to be about race; and specifically Black Americans. For that reason the emphasis of my essay will be on affirmative action programs that involve Black Americans.

2. Since I have narrowed my discussion of Affirmative action to that bestowed to a specific racial group, it is imperative that I give my understanding of what "race" is. I am writing this essay with the understanding that race is not an immutable biological category or characteristic but rather a social construction. In America, race was constructed and employed to preserve white privilege while simultaneously oppressing Blacks.

Show More
Related

  • Paul Laurence Dunbar

    1570 Words  | 4 Pages

    basic charge of this criticism can be stated in the words of a recent critic,

    Read More

  • Proctors Grave Mistake In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Proctor a well-respected man in the city of Salem has a deep secret that plays a major role later on in the story. He had an intimate affair with a younger single girl named Abigail which he regrets greatly. Proctor shows his disgust when he argues with Abigail by insisting, “Abby I never give you hope to wait for me” (page168). Proctor exclaims that he surely regrets his sin and doesn’t want Abigail to think that he loves her and not his own wife. Although Proctor may still have feelings about Abigail he reassures her that he will never have emotional relationships with her ever again. He had the ultimate opportunity to get back at Abigail and stop the witch trials from happening when he meets Abigail alone in the woods; upon their encounter she confesses to John, “We were dancing in the woods last night and my uncle leaped in ...

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Selective Incorporation

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • None of This is Fair by Mr. Richard Rodriguez

    664 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    Firstly, Atticus Finch acts justly, fairly, and always helps others who need it. One of his clients, Mr. Cunningham, pays Atticus in entailment. Scout asks her brother, Jem what the meaning of paying in entailment is, “Jem described it as a condition of having your tail in a crack … one morning Jem and I found a load of stovewood in the back yard … Mr. Cunningham had more than paid him” (Lee 20-21). Atticus believes that no one should get any disadvantages because of one’s lower financial state. He shows justice by allowing Mr. Cunningham to pay him in different sources other than money. Also, Atticus is a very wise man. He talks to his daughter with full empathy and understanding to try and help her. When Scout is complaining about her teacher’s attitude towards her, Atticus gives her great advice that, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his shoes and walk around it” (30). He is teaching Scout to be just. He tells her to look at things from a different perspective and notice the difference from hers to someone else’s. Similarly, Atticus who is a white lawyer takes on a case of a black man, Tom Robinson. Therefore, Scout is made fun of for having her father d...

    Read More

  • Problems with Affirmative Action

    739 Words  | 2 Pages

    For many years, people have presumed that Affirmative Action has played and continues to play a vital and important role in the lives of most minorities . However, some people have raised questions about the effectiveness of Affirmative Action. Since it's conception, it has been believed that in some instances, Affirmative Action has been more harmful then helpful. One may ask the question, is Affirmative Action really worth fighting for? Some may argue, that if it had not been for Affirmative Action, the minority unemployment rate would be much higher.

    Read More

  • John Proctor’s Moral Dilemma in The Crucible by Arthur Miller

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Proctor faces many decisions in response to his moral dilemma to try to save his life. One of the difficult decisions John makes is to reveal that he had an affair with Abigail Williams and thereby has committed adultery. If the local court convicts him of this crime, he faces being jailed. Also by admitting this crime, John reveals a weakness in his character. This flaw in his personality will make it harder for him to stand up in the community as an honorable and believable person. In trying to convince others that witchcraft does not exist John’s dishonesty with his wife will make him less convincing to the community.

    Read More

  • Is Affirmative Action still needed?

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Immigrant Tragedy in The Cariboo Café by Viramontes

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    "The Cariboo Café" is a story of Chicano immigrants and a Central American refugee. Along with these characters is the owner of the Cariboo Café, who comes in contact with the others. The story progresses in three short sections. Each section involves a different scenario and is told from the point of view of a different narrator. The three separate settings do not fully come together until the end of the last section. This approach makes the story initially very complicated to understand and difficult to connect the sections as a coherent stream of events. However, it is possible that this was Viramontes's intent. Perhaps the situations presented in the story were ones that posed this amount of confusion and frustration in real life to those who lived through them. Maybe Viramontes needed to convey in her story that what really happened in the urban barrios of Los Angeles never really made sense to anyone.

    Read More

  • Free Essays on The Crucible: John Proctor's Search For Identity

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    Early on in the play, the reader comes to understand that John Proctor has had an affair with Abigail Williams while she was working in his home. Abigail believed that if she got rid of Elizabeth Proctor, then John Proctor would become her own. John Proctor had an affair with Abigail, but for him it was just lust, while Abigail believed it to be true love. She told John Proctor that she loved him, and once she destroys Elizabeth, they would be free to love one another. John is horrified at this, but can do nothing to convince Abigail that he is not in love with her. Because of Abigail's twisted plot to secure John for herself, Elizabeth is arrested. John Proctor has to wrestle with the decision of what to do. He knows that he has sinned; yet he does not want to hurt his beloved wife. This is partly why he is willing to die. He knows he has already sinned.

    Read More

  • John Proctor's Transformation In The Crucible

    451 Words  | 1 Pages

    We quickly learn of his adultering behaviour with Abigail Williams. His extramarital activities are well known to his wife and all he can do is to try to justify himself and hope for her understanding. Proctor admits to Elizabeth of his wrongdoings and says “You will not judge me more, Elizabeth. I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think about it. Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband anymore. I have forgot Abigail, and -.” As the play moves forward, Proctor tries to protect his wife and tell the truth that the girls are

    Read More

  • The Chosen by Chaim Potok

    1368 Words  | 3 Pages

    "When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on a line and finds himself unable to swim about freely, he begins with a fight which results in struggles and splashes and sometimes an escape. Often, of course, the situation is too tough for him."

    Read More

  • Hysteria In The Crucible Essay

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    To start things off in the court, John Proctor is the protagonist and Abigail is the antagonist. Abigail also leads the girls in court in their witchcraft accusations. To start the court situation off, Hale believed that all the information that she told him were indeed false and only lead Abigail to point at others such as Mary Warren. “But God made my face; you cannot want to tear my face. Envy is a deadly sin, Mary”. (Miller 120). The irony here is she calls out Mary Warren for committing a deadly sin such as envy, however both lies with the lord’s name in vain and committed adultery with John Proctor (as that is what she stats happened). Abigail also points again to Elizabeth Proctor and accuses her of creating a voodoo doll and stuck pins into it to harm her, when it was Mary Warren who put it into the Proctor’s home to have proof that the Elizabeth needed to be arrested. “Tis hard proof!(To Hale) I find here a poppet Goody Proctor keeps. I have found it sir. And in the belly of the poppet is a needle’s stuck” (Miller 79). Also it was Mary Warren who put it there, everyone assumed it was Goody Proctor who did because it was in the Proctor home. However, even after Goody Proctor was set to be arrested with enough proof, Mary Warren comes out to tell everyone that it is her poppet.

    Read More

  • John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums

    614 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elisa is a country housewife. She is semi-distant from her husband and greatly distant from the world around her. She is a homebody, meaning that she rarely leaves the boundaries of her home and she has a lot of time and energy being built up. She uses some of this energy to clean up her house, but most of it is spent on her flower garden. Her garden is a place of solitude. It’s her own little world where she can let herself go and be the person that she wants to be. Her feminine side is brought out in her garden, the nurturer for the chrysanthemums, a mother almost to them. When the tinkerer comes to her home and into her garden he shows interest in her chrysanthemums. She takes this also as an interest in her as well. The garden in other words is a symbol for her femininity and womanhood.

    Read More

  • Tradition And Modernity In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    All throughout history, we see this dichotomy between tradition and modernity. On one hand, we have tradition, the force living perpetually in the past and refusing to change. On the other hand, modernity leaves tradition behind in favor of progress. These two concepts, much like oil and water, dare to divide but coexist as a debatable founding solution. Not only are the themes Western ideas, but they have been present and are found in literature all around the world, from China to Africa.

    Read More

More about American Society Needs Affirmative Action

Open Document