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Affirmative Action Argument

Good Essays

President Barack Obama said, “Race and class still intersect. [There are] a lot of African American kids who are still struggling. Even those who are in the middle class may be first generation, as opposed to fifth or sixth generation, college attendees.” He was right; minorities are struggling in the United States. What should be done? Affirmative Action is one answer to that question. Affirmative Action will help underprivileged people advance and makes strides for themselves and their communities. Not everyone, even in minority communities, agrees with affirmative action, but it is still a valuable tool, not only for the benefit of minorities, but for the benefit of everyone. There are measureable benefits to operating in a diverse environment. …show more content…

To say that diversity is not a benefit, especially in the United States, ignores the cultural diversity of a country that once prided itself on being a ‘melting pot.’ In a time when the United States is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, 43% of Millennials are not white, and the “religious landscape” of the U.S. is changing (Cohn), diversity should be valued rather than dismissed. These demographic changes bring a changing culture, a change that cannot be overlooked. This change will affect politics, education, religious institutions, and business. Already, It can be seen that companies with more diverse employees outperform other companies by 35% (Tulshyan). Ruchika Tulshyan, a writer for Forbes says that, “While correlation does not equal causation – greater diversity doesn’t automatically mean more profit – the link indicates that companies committed to diverse leadership are more successful.” Thomas Mason with the Huffington Post hypothesised that these diverse companies may be doing better, in part, because having a diverse group of people also brings a diverse skillset and cultural knowledge that would be neglected otherwise. A group of writers for the Harvard Business Review thought otherwise, and discussed their findings in an article entitled, “Diverse Teams Feel Less Comfortable - and That's Why They Perform Better.” The article suggests that …show more content…

Words have power, as seen in the case of Poison Ivy, a woman who targets vulnerable men, and persuades them to humiliate themselves on the internet for her. She asks them to shave their hair, write her name on their faces, asks them for explicit images, and promotes and grooms these men to be suicidal (Groom). Maybe someday that will be celebrated as free speech too. Speech codes on campus are meant to protect people, and hopefully, to minimize hate crimes, and prevent people from being inspired to assault or harass vulnerable groups. Being able to say, ‘I don’t like black people’ is protected, but fighting words and harassment are not and should not be protected. Saying, ‘I think Gays should kill themselves,’ should not be protected, calling out a specific transgender student in front of people that might be inspired to assault her, should not be protected. Given that, liberals, black people, feminists, and the LGBTQIA+ community should be held accountable when they do something unacceptable such as harass someone or incite violence. For example, the harassment and threatening of Ward Connerly, a “black California businessman who has campaigned across the nation to outlaw racial preferences,” should be unacceptable by anyone’s standards (Taylor). People can protest, disagree, and criticize, but threats of violence should be removed from any civil conversation. Anyone can be guilt of censorship,

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