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arguments for and against affirmative action
affirmative action for college admissions
affirmative action for college admissions
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The Right Reaction to Affirmative Action
As much as we would like to forget it, racial and gender disparity has been a part of our history since America was young. Racial disparity is still very evident in American society today as illustrated by continued racial discrimination and remaining signs of societal segregation. One of the key issues that arise when regarding affirmative action is whether or not affirmative action fairly promotes equality and atones for past prejudices. Another concern is whether the current affirmative action policy is the right policy to use. Through the discussion of empirical claims, moral claims, public opinion, international statistics, and the history involved in affirmative action, we have decided that the best position for our candidate is pro-affirmative action with some restrictions.
The debate on affirmative action exists because the concerns it deals with impact a vast amount of people, and the effectiveness of affirmative action is constantly questioned. It is a very divisive issue because affirmative action affects different groups of people in different ways, and some benefit more from affirmative action than others. In addition, it causes people to be classified into groups, and at the same time, strives to break down group barriers. It is an issue that is difficult to resolve because people have varied ideas about how the problems of racial inequality and historical discrimination should be addressed.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity to make sure that hiring practices were made without racial discrimination. Following this order in 1965 Lyndon B. Johnson stated:
the executive order requires government contract...
... middle of paper ...
...y 2003.
http://www.aacte.org/Membership_Governance/affirmativeactionstmt.pdf
{secondary scholarly; print via internet} (not used for evidence)
Unemployment rates. 2004. Public Agenda.
<http://www.publicagenda.org/issues/factfiles_detail.cfm?issue_type=race&list
=9>. {secondary scholarly; print via internet; reputable}
Wilson, Pete. "Proposition 209 and the affirmative action debate on the
University of California campuses." Feminist Studies 25 (n.d.)1999 <http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=37&did=000000042121378&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1082526756&clientId=9269>. {primary scholarly; print via internet; authoritative}
Williams, Walter. Affirmative Action Can't Be Mended. 15 Dec. 1997. CATO
Institute. <http://www.cato.org/dailys/12-15-97.html>. {popular news; internet publication; apparently credible}
Bender, David L. The Women's Rights Movement, Opposing Viewpoints: Greenhaven Press, Inc., San Diego 1996
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...
The Affirmative Action Law was formed as a solution to the long history of animosity towards minorities, and to eradicate the segregation between minorities and majorities. The program certainly aided many of disadvantage people living in the United States. The Affirmative Action encouraged many individuals, particularly, women, and group of people that belongs to different ethnic groups to have hopes and dreams due to the fair chance that were being given by the program. However, even though the Affirmative Action Law’s aim is to provide equal human rights for all the citizens of the United States, there will always be a group of people who will oppose, because each individuals’ have different notion and needs.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. Rebel Without a Cause. Dir.
Yuval-Davis. Who's Afraid of Feminism? Ed. Ann Oakley and Juliet Mitchell. New York: The New Press, 1997.
To achieve win-win outcomes, it is essential to separate the people from the problem. Thus, it is important to "Face the problem, not the people. The basic approach is to deal with the people as human beings and with the problem on its merits" (Fisher,Ury & Patton,1991, p.40-41).
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.
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...
Moran, Mickey. “1930s, America- Feminist Void?” Loyno. Department of History, 1988. Web. 11 May. 2014.
Locke, Jillian L. "Feminism (Second-Wave)." Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History. Ed. Thomas S. Langston. Vol. 6: Postwar Consensus to Social Unrest, 1946 to 1975. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2010. 170-174. Gale Virtual Library
Peterson, Linda H. "What Is Feminist Criticism?" Wuthering Heights. Ed. Linda H. Peterson. Boston: Bedford Books, 1992. 330-337.
There is another type of hero that almost no one is aware of. In the poorest areas of the country, live mostly minorities and other ethic background. All their lives they’ve been expected to work harder and expected not succeed in life. Some individuals living in poverty with a determination to succeed work hard all of their lives to become what everybody doubted they could. Escaping the crime, drugs, and prostitution is enough to escape hell, even if they don’t go to college. Despite of their financial problems, drug and crime surroundings, or difficulties in the language skills, their desire to triumph fuels their persistence. Those who make it to success are the few living examples of the purest form of hero anyone can be. They are not only their own heroes but also the heroes of the poor children who dream of becoming like them someday.
McAfee, Noëlle. "Feminist Political Philosophy." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. Winter 2011 Edition ed. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
However, I still want to stand on my opinion, I think e-book is better than printed book even more students prefer using printed books. I know using a e-book for long time may be harmful for people’s eyes, and the device may not support enough power for them to read books, but I more care about the advantages of e-book. An e-book is obviously cheaper than printed book, and it brings a lot of convenience into my study life. The most important thing is using an e-book is saving the earth resources. I believe that e-books will be more and more popular, and then replace using printed books in the
As more people began to access the Internet through smart phones and tablets rather than laptops and computers, it is not a surprise that they would also want to transform the American education system by bringing tablets into classrooms. In fact, a few schools around the country have already replaced textbooks with tablets and have seen improvements in students’ standardized test scores. Using tablets instead of textbooks is not only convenient and helpful, but it can also reduce the amount of paper wastes in school. However, it is not a good idea to completely transform textbooks with tablets with the current technology, for it can not only be damaging to the environment and costly to set up, but also might not be effective in improving K-12 education in the long run.