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Why is diversity important in higher education
Paper on diversity in higher education
Essay on diversity in higher education
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Although some believe racial quotas are a necessity for diversity and equality, it is actually true that, these quotas create discrimination and therefore should be abolished. Most were taught the line, “All men are created equal.” If this is the case, why when applying for a career or college does race play a factor in if someone gets the position or not? To end discrimination, the nation needs to overlook race, not put quotas on it.
Racial quotas were implemented to encourage diversity as well as encourage minorities to go into different vocations and strive for college degrees. Certainly it is true that, diversity and equality of opportunity is what our nation strives for. Although, making certain ethnicities more valuable in the application process is creating discrimination, what this ‘quota’ is trying to prevent.
Martin Luther King Jr’s most famous line, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” King is one of the most famous civil rights activis...
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...
These lessons were applied for the duration of the Civil Rights Movement including in Martin Luther King’s words in his I Have a Dream speech, the murder of Emmett Till, and use of Jim Crow laws on public facilities. Atticus believes that people should not be judged until they understand things from the other person’s point of view, such teachings also support Martin Luther King’s messages of peace. On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led the March on Washington where he delivered the I Have a Dream speech in which he uttered the words, “they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” (qtd.in. Martin Luther King I Have a Dream)
The merit system standards case is based on Congressman Wally Herger’s comments regarding the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) civil rights program (Reeves, 2006). In an attempt to persuade the House of Representatives that change was necessary, Herger quoted several United States Forest Service job announcements that included language such as “only unqualified applicants may apply” and “only applicants who do not meet Office of Personnel Management (OPM) qualification requirements will be considered” (Reeves, 2006). The This case study analysis will focus on the Forest Service’s unfair practice of actively recruiting and hiring unqualified applicants, the reasons for discontinuing this practice, and the increase in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaints due to this practice and suggestions for increasing diversity without compromising the merit system (Reeves, 2006).
In conclusion, King’s “I Have a Dream,” played a major step in inspiring generations of blacks to never give up and made thousands of white Americans bitterly ashamed of their lack of moral and Godly values, forging a new start for the American society that embraces racial equality. The speech’s heart-warming and moving content coupled with King’s effective voice and the usage of literary devices such as Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric have made this speech the greatest of the 20th century.
Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled against the use of race in the college admissions process in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas. Since then, affirmative action has become a big issue in the media; however, many people still do not even know what affirmative action is. Affirmative action is a policy to prevent discrimination on the basis of “color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Overall, it favors minorities that are often discriminated. It might sound like an excellent policy; however, the use of this policy in the college admissions process is prejudice. In the college admissions process, affirmative action lowers the standards for some races, while raising the standard for other races. For example, an Asian might need a SAT score of 2300 to be considered for admission at a top school such as Yale and a white applicant might need a score of 2100, while an African American or Hispanic only needs a score of 1700. While affirmative action provides equality in the workplace, it has no place in the college admissions process and should, therefore, be abolished and replaced. This type of policy can be repealed completely, replaced with a college admissions process that favors first generation college applicants, or replaced with a policy based on an applicant’s socioeconomic status.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Affirmative action, an idea which began in the 1930s but truly kicked off in the 1960s, consists of a wide variety of programs meant to help level the playing field in both universities and the workplace by making race and gender a consideration in the selection process. While supporters believe affirmative action must stay an active policy so that the United States can continue to strive for proportional equality in higher level jobs and education, opponents argue positions should be awarded on an individual basis based on merit alone. Although affirmative action policies have done impressive work creating these opportunities, it is now time to question if, after 40 years, this method is working and should be continued, if the current policies are no longer effective and the negative costs now outweigh the possible benefits and a new approach should be put into place.
On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his most notable speech. He proclaimed to all that would listen, “I have a dream! I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin... but by the content of their character!” This affirmation introduced the color-blind ideology to the American people. Dr. King's revelation is based on the premise that there is no profiling on the individual based on the color of their skin. This ensures the avoidance of superiority and inferiority and enforces equality. The problem that has arised following the declaration of the speech is the issue of applied social colorblindness. While King explicitly states that we should not assume the character of a person based solely on appearance, it has been misinterpreted as meaning that we should completely ignore race, ethnicity, and culture when acknowledging people entirely.
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.
Minority groups are given different criteria to meet when applying to college. This is an attempt to compensate for the hardships many minority groups had to face in history. As examined by Hoover Institution’s Thomas Sowell this advantage benefits minority applicants from middle and upper class backgrounds. As a result of admissions using a zero sum game, which is where one person’s gain is another person’s loss, these preferences hurt some applicants who meet admission standards in unequal numbers (Sacks and Thiel). If this predilection were genuinely meant to redress disadvantages, it would not be given on the basis of ethnicity. Supporters of affirmative action claim that affirmative action advocates diversity. But if diversity were the goal, then
Racial preference has indisputably favored Caucasian males in society. Recently this dynamic has been debated in all aspects of life, including college admission. Racial bias has intruded on the students’ rights to being treated fairly. Admitting students on merit puts the best individuals into the professional environment. A university’s unprejudiced attitude towards race in applicants eliminates biases, empowers universities to harness the full potential of students’ intellect, and gives students an equal chance at admission.
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.
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.
Dr. King announced the “I Have A Dream” speech in front of 200,000 African American families and to a few Caucasians who were at the scene of his speech. Dr. King’s speech was mainly addressed to the African Americans, to explain one day there will be equality in all Caucasians and other ethnicities such as; Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans. Therefore at the time of his speech, his audiences were to the 200,000 people who attended the speech but he was also referring to all other ethnicities as well. To his audience for example, he said as the future years pass, the hardship they are going through would pay off for the future children. For example, in his speech he said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be jugged by the color of their skin but by their content of character.
Imagine waking up tomorrow and reading in the local paper that the government was giving tax breaks to minorities in order to prevent discrimination. Congress insists that the deductions will “help level the playing field” in American society, claiming that diversity is necessary in creating an ideal nation, but is this attempt to prevent disparities and racism not an act of inequality in itself? By putting this policy into place, the government is giving advantages to minorities without showing the same generosity to Caucasians of the same economic backgrounds. Protests would be taking place around the country as citizens argue that the plan violates their Constitutional right to equality. Yet this is exactly the type of scenario seen in universities across the country. Colleges use race as a large factor in admissions in order to create “optimal diversity” among the students. However, this attempt at variety often comes at the expense of white and Asian students. For these reasons, affirmative action policies in college admissions should be eliminated in the United States.