Affirmative action “means programs taking the race or sex of employees, job candidates, [or students] into account as part of an effort to correct imbalances in employment [or education] that exist as a result of past discrimination, either in the company, [or university] itself or in the larger society” (Shaw and Barry 560). In the United States of America affirmative action programs has had a long history of aiding minorities in being hired, accepted, and/or promoted to positions they would have not found themselves in before affirmative action. Due to its previous successes many favor affirmative action and argue that without affirmative action our society would not be able to give compensatory justice for the mistreatment of minorities …show more content…
Present day society has grown and evolved to a diverse America we see today, with minorities in high levels of government, in universities, with bachelors, masters, and doctorates in extremely prestigious degrees, and in high-paying careers. Some would argue that this is not enough; minorities are still underrepresented in all walks of life. However true that may be and however much I agree, we all ought to agree that affirmative action has set the foundation for minorities, and their offspring, to succeed. We do not need strong affirmative action in our society anymore (note, I said strong affirmative action). Weak affirmative action, in that it becomes outreach, will achieve in the same results without blatantly discriminating …show more content…
I believe it can be generally agreed that in many situations diversity and having a specific race or sex is extremely crucial to the success or failure of a program. For example, San Jose State University and San Jose is widely known for being an extremely diverse community and therefore we must also have people of different races and genders in positions such as government, education, and security. With a diverse group of politicians, the diverse groups of individuals are heard and actions can be taken to fix any errors this community has. Therefore, in this scenario, having affirmative action to recruit and employ minorities is extremely beneficially and understood; however, in the case of strong affirmative action, we may cause more than good. With strong affirmative action, the mayor will appointment minorities to be representatives of their community without any merit simply because they need more people that fit in a category such as Hispanics in a wheelchair (this category was made up). This individual is now the voice of his community, but he is not qualified to speak for his community, he has no education in politics nor has he ever been active in his
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...
According to author Judith Boss “Affirmative action involves taking positive steps in job hiring and college admissions to correct certain past injustices against groups”. Affirmative Action is not only for people of color it is also for women. It is needed to achieve full gender equity in schools and the workplace. With that said one of the benefits of affirmative action is to make sure that schools and the workplace stays diverse, it’s to help create communities that are open-minded and expose people to different cultures that are different from their own. Having the ability to interact with other race and nationalities is a big part of the education process. It allows students and employees the ability to interact with people of the opposite
..., or replaced with a policy based on socioeconomic status. Abolishing affirmative action completely has its disadvantages, for it does not increase diversity on campus. An admission policy favoring first-generation college students helps to increase diversity on campus. However, the purpose of affirmative action should not be to increase diversity on campus; it should be about giving disadvantaged students an opportunity at a better life. A policy based on socioeconomic status does that. Affirmative action must be put to an end and replaced with one of these alternatives. This country was established on the ideals of equality for all races, and affirmative action goes against all these ideals. Martin Luther King once said, “All men are created equal.” The color of someone’s skin should not be a determining factor for admissions into a certain college or university.
More importantly, Mr. Watulak mentions that "affirmative action has some rather unpleasant racist assumptions hiding behind it. The clear implication that minorities could not adequately get ahead without special considerations seems just a touch bigoted." I agree with this because even though affirmative action looks like a positive policy for minorities, it may have a lot of negative consequences as well. It can be true that it has increased job opportunities for minorities but the question is whether it has done so for correct reasons. For example, when a minority gets a high position in a corporation, the other employers may think about why this person received this position.
Overall, I am arguing that affirmative action policies cause a significant more amount of harm than they hinder. These policies are wholly arbitrary, lack common reason, and create discrimination while simultaneously trying to eliminate it. They additionally encourage mediocrity while attempting to award less competent individuals over more competent ones. The diversity affirmative action policies try to promote could easily manifest itself naturally, but is instead forced where it need not be. If western society is going to have any hope of eradicating discrimination, it need not be promoted in any form, even positively.
The outlined goals of affirmative action are what we need for this country. The United States society needs to change the way it sees and treats its citizens. The methods that affirmative action uses, however, are not conducive to ac...
Many individuals do not know the meaning of the term “affirmative action.” In order to clearly understand the issue, one must first know the necessary terms associated with it. Affirmative action is a term given to an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination (i.e. African Americans, Asians, etc.). For example, certain scholarships for African Americans can be regarded as affirmative action opportunities. Another example of affirmative action could be an institutional program designed for African Americans. So why is it important? Affirmative action policies and programs are designed to insure that qualified individuals of minority groups have equal access to programs and are “to par” with other individuals of the same merit. Please note that I said qualified and of the same merit. Affirmative action does not place individuals in minority groups at an advantage. This is a common misconception by some people. Affirmative action can be seen in the college admission process, the promotion process for higher-level positions, and in other various areas. The goal is to
Race has unfortunately been one of the pinnacle underlying factors of whether a person succeeded or failed since the birth of this country. Our current generation may see it relevant to race, religion, gender, ext, with the bias of the general public today affecting many groups without a voice. Within the last 56 years, Affirmative Action has taken grasp. This plan has changed the course of millions of African-American lives as well as other minorities. Affirmative Action offers fairer opportunities to education and advanced degrees, and taking steps towards a more balanced admissions system in American colleges.
Affirmative action is an attempt by the United States to amend a long history of racial discrimination and injustice. Our school textbook defines affirmative action as “a program established that attempts to improve the chances of minority applicants for educational or employment purposes, although they may have the same qualifications, by giving them leverage so that they can attain a level that is equal to caucasian applicants” (Berman 522). There are people that support and oppose this issue. Opponents of affirmative action have many reasons for opposing this issue, one of them being that the battle for equal rights is over, and that this advantage made for people of color discriminates against people that are not of color. The people that defend affirmative action argue this advantage is needed because of how badly discriminated the people of color once were. Because of the discrimination that once was these people claim that they are at a disadvantage, and always have been, therefore equality of opportunity is needed. It is also said that affirmative action is used to encourage diversity and integration. This paper will discuss the history of affirmative action, how it is implemented in society today, and evaluate the arguments that it presents.
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...
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....
Affirmative Action in regards to college admissions is a ludicrous agenda due to its unfairness, it’s effect on race relations, and how it can make people fail. Diversity in a classroom may have its perks, but relying on diversity alone to provide a good learning environment is a hopeless cause. Like Robert Fullinwinder said,” The link between racial diversity and a better education is not strong enough to justify the very special urgency we attach to racial and ethnic representativeness in the university.”
The importance of America when it was founded was that it was a new world with new rules. People could come from all over the world and build a better life, regardless of any discriminatory factors such as race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Going farther, the rights that were not granted to people in the past could be changed because the constitution left room for improvement to build a better nation. The problem, however, with having so much immigration is there are so many different cultures and different ways of life in this single country that there will always be some form of discrimination. Affirmative action is way to prevent discriminations, both past and present. Affirmative action should stay in place.
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...
The focus of this paper is on the history of affirmative action and its relevance to our society. Affirmative action focuses on the importance of equality and equal opportunity among all people in terms of education and employment. In coordination with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunities Act of 1972, the affirmative action policy was submitted by federal agencies. Is it not true that ethnic minorities do not have the same opportunities in life as whites, and that women should be entitled to the same opportunities as men? This act is only a means to help the less advantaged members of our society. In this case the less advantage would be those of color and women (www.infoplease.com).