The Injustice of Affirmative Action

When the Civil Rights Law passed, minorities, especially African-Americans, believed that they should receive retribution for the years of discrimination that they endured. The government responded by passing laws to aide them in attaining better employment as reprieve for the previous two hundred years of suffering. To many, these laws made sense. After all, the white race was partly responsible for their enslavement. However, the individual w... ... middle of paper ... ... Am I being picked for my writing ability, or to fulfill a quota” (Chinea-Varela 342).

Affimative Action Affirmative action is a plan to offset past discrimination in employing and educating women, blacks, and other minorities. It is the government's way of apologizing to ethnic groups for the injustices they have suffered. Affirmative action is supposed to preserve liberty and to improve race relations, but it is actually worsening them. It is not helping poor blacks; it is primarily helping well-to-do blacks. More effective programs should be implemented to take the place of affirmative action.

Steele acknowledges that blacks were wrongly persecuted, but stresses that as a result of affirmative action, "blacks now stand to lose more than they gain." Although the intent of the policy is positive, the end result is a false effort at white redemption and an ill advised effort by the black mandate to gain power by accepting undeserved positions in society. Steele points out that instead of focusing on developing ... ... middle of paper ... ...ol or technical school level by allocating more resources (financial and staffing) to those in need of extra help. Public acceptance of this preferential treatment would be greater, less emotional, and more easily justified. It does not address the intermediate needs of some minorities, but maybe there could be federal or state programs for special training.

Not until much later, did the first clear evidence of racism occur with the start of slave trade from Africa to Britain and America. Racism was then formed by the rich and powerful to justify inhumane treatment of black people. However, social justice has come a long way since then. Ironically, long after declaring all men equal, the United States has shown their efforts to improve opportunities to minorities by continuing the use of affirmative action, which is now not necessary in today's society. Affirmative action clearly leads to reverse discrimination, and the focus on those who have traditionally been thought of as minorities overlooks candidates who may be more suited for a position.

I say yes, affirmative action was and is needed to help prevent unfairness caused by discrimination in America. I believe the doors of opportunity have just peaked opened for women and minorities and the United States should continue to use affirmative action as an appropriate instrument for achieving racial and gen... ... middle of paper ... ...men and minorities by providing them opportunities for advancement. In conclusion, affirmative action has been criticized as a shallow solution that does not reach deeper economic problems in the United States. However, when understanding its purpose, affirmative action was never designed to solve the economic inequalities in America. Instead, it was intended only to rectify discrimination in hiring and academic admissions.

Affirmative Action as Discrimination Based on Race Affirmative action is geared towards providing solution to the long standing issu... ... middle of paper ... ...d not by their competence but by their race. Affirmative action is not ethical because it is against the law on equal opportunities. When it is supposed to help the disadvantaged, it instead suggests that people of color are inferior and therefore need special privileges in order to succeed. Affirmative action also offends the ethnic minorities on account that they are not allowed to compete head to head with the advantaged group. On the other hand, not all that is about affirmative action hurt the white.

Affirmative action continues the judgement of minorities by race; it causes reverse discrimination, and contradicts its purpose. Affirmative action is not creating a colorblind society. In fact it continues the judgement of minorities according to race. Affirmative action forces employers and colleges to lower the standard for minorities. It also is demeaning to minorities who want to be judged by their actions, not their skin color.

This has caused many problems and harsh feelings of unfairness and thoughts of reverse discrimination ever sense. Affirmative action in education was originally intended to guarantee people equally protection under the law for minorities in schooling. It was also designed to destroy discrimination in job fields based on ones color of skin. What this ended up doing however is called reverse discrimination. Now non-minority individuals who work hard to earn a spot in employment can easily be passed over simply because they are non-minority.

One may ask, what is affirmative action? Webster defines affirmative actions as ”the practice of improving the educational and job opportunities of members of groups that have not been treated fairly in the past because of their race, sex, etc.” What would be the purpose of creating equal opportunity when it was promised when founding America? The reality is that, America for a long time and some will even debate present times as well, has only been the America dream for one group of people, white male. There is no secret of the unfair treatment of African-American males and Women. The results of racism have changed tremendously but what has not changed is discrimination.

They often find their achievements overlooked because of their racial background (Bronner). Although affirmative action was created to prevent the discrimination of minorities in the United States, Asians are instead deprived of their fair chance to gain acceptance into college. These policies claim to help the disadvantaged, but if “preferences were truly meant to remedy disadvantage, they would be given on the basis of disadvantage, not on the basis of race” (Sacks and Thiel). Because affirmative action is misleading and depriving students of a fair chance in college admissions, it should not be factored into college acceptance decisions. Although there is diversity in the United States, there is also a blend of cultures as well as a sense of unity that exists among different ethnic groups; this does not mean that everyone and everything is in harmony with each other, but in general, the mixing of cultures truly makes America unique.