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Arguments for and against affirmative action
The importance of affirmative actions in college admissions
The importance of affirmative actions in college admissions
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Recommended: Arguments for and against affirmative action
Affirmative action or “racial preferences” are a hotly contested issue in the United States. For over four decades many states’ public universities have used race in the awarding of admissions preferences for minority applicants. Ten states have banned the use of racial preferences in university admissions including Michigan where on April 22, 2014 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a voter approved ban on affirmative action. This policy paper attempts to influence state legislatures and officials to adopt similar bans in their home states not because the United States no longer suffers from racism and bias, although this bias has been significantly reduced since 1960’s, but on the grounds that research proves racial preferences in universities, especially selective ones, actually hurt minority students in a phenomenon known as “mismatch.” Mismatch is where minority students are admitted to select universities based on broad racial preferences even though they are not academically prepared. These large racial preferences backfire against most recipients and cause many to fail academically when they would have been more likely to succeed at a less-competitive school. The consequences in terms of cost in time, money, and loss of self-confidence are dire.
We will observe the effects and outcomes on minorities from California’s Proposition 209, which banned the use of affirmative action in admissions at the enormous University of California system and why states ought to adopt similar measures. It is the author’s sincere desire to influence state policy makers to ban the use of racial preferences, ideally through voter referendums, in public universities vis-à-vis admissions and that preference points ...
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...Apr. 2014.
Affirmative Action: State Action." Affirmative Action: State Action. National Conference of State Legislators, Apr. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. .
Sander, Richard, and Stuart Taylor, Jr. “Class, Race, and the Targeting of Preferences.” Mismatch. New York: Basic, 2012. 254. Print
Note: Authors’ calculations of data obtained from the College Board.
A Washington Post/Kaiser poll from 2001: Washington Post/Kaiser/Harvard, “Racial Attitudes Survey,” March 8-April 22, 2001, http://www.washingotnpost.com/wp-srv/nation/sidebars/polls/race071101.htm.
Hurley, Lawrence. "U.S. Top Court Upholds Michigan Ban on College Affirmative Action." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. .
Bryjak, George J. “The Ongoing Controversy Over Title IX.” USA Today Magazine 129.2662 (2000): 62. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
Wilkins, Roger. “Racism.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 572 (2000): 159. Sage Publications, Inc. Web. 25 Mar. 2014
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 institution of public education has been one of the most controversial establishments in the United States since its inception. More specifically, equality in the conditions and the opportunities it provides has been sought as one of its major goals. There is little doubt that minority ethnic groups have struggled to achieve educational equality, just as they have struggled for equality in other aspects of life. One way that minorities have tried to achieve equality in education is through lobbying for help in college admissions for their respective groups. This social practice has been debated on many grounds, including necessity and ethical permissibility.
Awad, Germine H., Kevin Cokley, and Joseph Ravitch. "Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action: A Comparison Of Color-Blind Versus Modern Racist Attitudes." Journal Of Applied Social Psychology 35.7 (2005): 1384-1399. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Affirmative action, the act of giving preference to an individual for hiring or academic admission based on the race and/or gender of the individual has remained a controversial issue since its inception decades ago. Realizing its past mistake of discriminating against African Americans, women, and other minority groups; the state has legalized and demanded institutions to practice what many has now consider as reverse discrimination. “Victims” of reverse discrimination in college admissions have commonly complained that they were unfairly rejected admission due to their race. They claimed that because colleges wanted to promote diversity, the colleges will often prefer to accept applicants of another race who had significantly lower test scores and merit than the “victims”. In “Discrimination and Disidentification: The Fair-Start Defense of Affirmative Action”, Kenneth Himma responded to these criticisms by proposing to limit affirmative action to actions that negate unfair competitive advantages of white males established by institutions (Himma 277 L. Col.). Himma’s views were quickly challenged by his peers as Lisa Newton stated in “A Fair Defense of a False Start: A Reply to Kenneth Himma” that among other rationales, the Fair-Start Defense based on race and gender is a faulty justification for affirmative action (Newton 146 L. Col.). This paper will also argue that the Fair-Start Defense based on race and gender is a faulty justification for affirmative action because it cannot be fairly applied in the United States of America today. However, affirmative action should still be allowed and reserved for individuals whom the state unfairly discriminates today.
Recently the merits of a race based admission policy to colleges and universities have come under scrutiny by the American public. Take into account the position of black conservatives, who feel that affirmative action merely perpetuates a system of preference in reverse and does nothing to fix the problems African Americans face in lower educational programs. When looking at the arguments of the Black conservatives and comparing them to the view points of the opposition, a certain conclusion may be reached.
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.
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.
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...
Rothenberg, P. 1998. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New York: St. Martin's Press.
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 ... ...
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.
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....
Reed, Rodney J. (1983) Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Is It Necessary? The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 52, No. 3, Persistent and Emergent Legal Issues in Education: 1983 Yearbook, 332-349.