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Affirmative Action And Its Effect On Minority Minorities For Jobs, Promotions, And Educational Opportunities

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Affirmative action is described in sociology as, policies and programs that aim to avoid discrimination and redress past discrimination through the active recruitment of qualified minorities for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities. (i.e. Exp. Soc., pg 280). In other words, the law was put in place as an attempt to create pluralism in the United States structure of opportunity. When describing affirmative action, the generalized assumption is individuals being handed opportunities based only on their ethnicity. Whether or not that opinion rings through to the majority, consider the events that lead to the enactment of affirmative action in the first place. The structure of opportunity in the United States has always been a biased and unfair in its distribution of opportunities. Since the beginning, the structure of opportunity has always been in favor of whiter, and ultimately wealthier Americans. Segregation, discrimination, and complete disregard for people of different ethnicity and color made it as such.
People of color were seen as an inferior, and ultimately poorer group of people than people who were white. In earlier time, a metaphorical “glass ceiling” held back student of different ethnicity from becoming more educated. The “glass ceiling” that held them back for so long was the structure of opportunity being as biased as it is. In essence, the economic conditions, culture, and other aspects of certain people had an impact on how they lived in society.

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