Speech Why We Need Afirmative Action
Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the importance of affirmative action.
Thesis: Minorities and women would not have gained as much progress as they have without the creation and enforcement of affirmative action policies.
I. Attention Grabber
A. Nancy was about to fill an entry position at the local bank, when the hiring personnel was going over her pay she found out that she was being paid $50 a month less than what a man was being paid in the same position. She was furious, because she felt that she was just as qualified and that she was being discriminated against because of her sex. But, when she confronted the hiring personal he didn't see what the problem was, and he didn't think that anything was wrong with it. Then several years later she interviewed for the supervisory position.
B. Now, how would it make you feel if you were told that you were told that you were the most qualified candidate for the position but a man was going to get the job instead. Why because he was a man and she was only a women. The reason that this hits so close to home is because this story is about my mother, and this very same situation happened to her.
Transition: By going over the background, clarifying misconceptions, you will understand why I feel that affirmative action is a law worthy of praise.
II. Let me begin by introducing you to some of the history of affirmative action.
A. It's beginnings can be traced back to the 1800's when the 14th amendment was added to the constitution.
1. It made the freedmen citizens and prohibited states from enforcing laws that would take away the privileges of any citizen, depriving men of life, liberty, property without due proces...
... middle of paper ...
...men now hold 40% of all corporate middle-management jobs, and the number of women-owned businesses has more than doubled since 1982. But, this is just the beginning, the National Organization for Women states that white men still hold 95% of the high end level corporate jobs. Affirmative Action is necessary so that women and people of color of various economic class have the opportunity to enter all fields, it helps qualified candidates overcome racism and sexism. There is a misconception that AA policies are taking away from a majority of acceptances into colleges away from white males but if half of the people of color who are admitted to schools under AA programs were cut, the acceptance rates of white men would only increase by 2%.
History has shown that discrimination has and always will be a problem as long as society remains ignorant of its existence.
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...
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...
The Fourteenth Amendment What amendment to the United States constitution is considered to be illegally ratified? What amendment both grants the right to vote to men and then takes away that right to vote? If you answered the fourteenth amendment to both questions you would be right. Although most people think of the fourteenth amendment as being a "civil rights" amendment, it also defines citizenship, voting rights, and states congressional representatives and electors numbers. In this paper I will talk about how the passage of the fourteenth amendment was a relevant event in history, how it impacts our country today, how it is viewed as the civil rights amendment in our textbook, how it has both positive and negative elements to it,
Affirmative action, while a great idea in the beginning, is no longer needed to make up for the past discrimination of women and minorities. It does not get rid of discrimination, but rather creates it towards whites and men. Any form of discrimination is wrong, whether intentional or unintentional. Businesses and universities will set aside a separate pool for minorities and women so they don’t have to originally compete against the whole pool of applicants. A person’s qualifications and how they got to where they are should not be questioned because of affirmative action. The only reason some people are still questioned or considered undeserving is because affirmative action still takes place. Getting rid of affirmative action in universities and businesses will eliminate reverse discrimination and ensure that their qualifications, along with achievements, will not be questioned based on the skin color or gender of a
Sex Discrimination in the American Workplace: Still a Fact of Life. (2000, July 01). Retrieved from National Women's Law Center : www.nwlc.org
These were the actions that made our country leap towards a revolution and eventually make it free. As the first line of the constitution says ?We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.?, and this selection along with the rest of the constitution still stands today and has not been changed or altered since it was made.
Charles, Camille Z., et al. "Affirmative-Action Programs for Minority Students: Right in Theory, Wrong in Practice." The Chronicle of Higher Education 55.29 (2009). Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Aug. 2011.
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...
Subconscious prejudices, self-segregation, political correctness, reverse discrimination, and ignorance all wade in the pool of opinions surrounding affirmative action and racial animosity. With racial tensions ever present in this country, one might question whether the problems can be solved by affirmative action.
One of the most significant results of the revolution was the creation of a democratically-elected representative government that became in theory responsible for the will of the people, but due to the 'Three-Fifths Compromise ' allowed the southern slaveholders to bulid power and maintain slavery in America for another eighty years due to them gaining more of an electoral vote. The new Constitution established a relatively strong federal national government that included a strong elected president, national courts, a two-tier Congress that represented both states in the Senate and population in the House of Representatives. Congress had powers of taxation that were absent under the old Articles. The United States Bill of Rights of 1791 involved the first ten amendments to the Constitution, guaranteeing many "natural rights" that were influential in justifying the revolution, and attempted to balance a strong national government with strong state governments and extensive personal rights. The American shift to liberal republicanism, and the gradually increasing democracy, caused an upheaval of traditional social hierarchy and led the way for the core of political values in the United States. It was expressed by conservatives like James Kent who as a radical wanted ‘‘to dissolve the long intricate and oppressive chain of subordination,’ of the old monarchical society,’ suggesting that lot of the change had more to do with politics and a desire for a new way of running things than it did with social problems within the
In the world today, racism and discrimination is one of the major issues being faced with. Racism has existed throughout the world for centuries and has been the primary reasons for wars, conflicts, and other human calamities all over the planet. It has been a part of America since the European colonization of North America beginning in the 17th century. Many people are not aware of how much racism still exist in our schools, workforces, and anywhere else that social lives are occurring. It started from slavery in America to caste partiality in India, down to the Holocaust in Europe during World War II.
The discrimination against Caucasian and Asian American students a long with the toleration of lower quality work produced by African American students and other minority students is an example of the problems caused by Affirmative Action. Although affirmative action intends to do good, lowering the standards by which certain racial groups are admitted to college is not the way to solve the problem of diversity in America's universities. The condition of America's public schools is directly responsible for the poor academic achievement of minority children. Instead of addressing educational discrepancies caused by poverty and discrimination, we are merely covering them up and pretending they do not exist, and allowing ourselves to avoid what it takes to make a d... ... middle of paper ... ...
Pursuing this further, in the beginning, from the sociological perspective, affirmative action was approved in order to reprimand the African Americans who have suffered from discrimination through the years. Now this policy has spread to all minorities and are now seen as quotas where one minority has an advantage over another. That is why there are many people who do not agree with affirmative action. Certain groups can create an opportunity for themselves and only gain advantages that the p...
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....
The purpose ofAffirmative Action is a simple one, it exists to level the playing field, so to speak, in the areas of hiring and college admissions based on characteristics that usually include race, sex, and/or ethnicity. A certain minority group or gender may be underrepresented in an arena, often employment or academia, in theory due to past or ongoing discrimination against members of the group. In such a circumstance, one school of thought maintains that unless this group is concretely helped to achieve a more substantial representation, it will have difficulty gaining the critical mass and acceptance in that role, even if overt discrimination against the group is eradicated. For this reason, more effort must be made to recruit persons from that background, train them, and lower the entrance requirements for them. (Goldman, 1976, p. 179) Proponents of affirmative action argue that affirmative action is the best way to corre...