Two Views of Affirmative Action Essay

In the controversial realms of affirmative action, the largest issue staunchly fought over is whether minorities should be given preferential treatment in the workplace and in the schools. One side declares that those in the minority group need and deserve governmental aid so that they will be on equal footing with the majority group. Opponents of affirmative action point out that setting apart groups based on their race or ethnicity is purely racism and can lead to reverse discrimination. I am against affirmative action for the aforementioned reasons, and would not consider such racism as necessary for creating a healthy society, as proponents would insist. It is my belief that affirmative action today is out of date and is

Summary: This paper is based on an article called "I'm Black You're White Who's innocent" by Shelby Steel. The article takes a position that is against affirmative action because it takes the independence away from people of color.

I am better than you because I am black and you are white or I am white and you are black. What does this say about the type of people we are today? Having moral power over a certain race determines the guilty and the innocent. The simple fact of saying I am better than you, does not matter on the color of your skin but how you present yourself. Steele offers us a view of what it is like to be a black middle class citizen and shows his way of dealing with the major issues of race. For me this has opened up a new way of thinking about myself and the several dealings I have had in my life with the moral aspect of race, which dove me into the reality of what obstacles we encounter everyday with the race issue.

He used facts by comparing what happened years ago, and what was happening in the year that he wrote his essay. In the past, civil right leaders were fighting for integration and equality. By the late sixties, people didn’t wanted just equality, they wanted more privileges, and they were becoming separatist because they were not accepting people that were different, they only wanted people that were equal to them, and by saying equal I mean the same ethnic group. To support his claim, Steele states that “By the mid-Sixties, the democratic goal of integration was no longer enough to appease black anger. Suddenly for blacks there was a sense that far more was owed, that a huge bill was due” (Steele, 455). “I went on to explain that Martin Luther King and the early civil right leaders had demanded only constitutional rights; they had been found wanting, too. By the late Sixties, among a new set of black leaders, there had developed a presumption of collective entitlement that made blacks eligible for rights beyond those provided for in the Constitution…”(Steele, 451). “As early as mid-Sixties, white were made unwelcome in civil right movements, just as, by the mid-Seventies, men were no longer welcome in the women’s movement”(Steele, 456). Moreover, those comparisons helped him to get more credibility from his audience by demonstrating that Steele was not just arguing because he was angry, but because it was true based on his facts that in the past, people had the real definition of democracy, but later, people just wanted to take advantage of this

Over a century after the emancipation of millions of slaves, and twenty-five years following the declaration that “separate is not equal,” the case Regents of University of California v. Bakke ruled in favor of affirmative action. Justice Harry Blackmun affirmed in this decision that “[i]n order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way.” As one of the most liberal judges on the court at the time, Blackmun tended to rule favorably in regards to expanding the rights of women and minorities. In presenting this opinion, he explains that issues of race must be addressed and considered in order to fix racism, prejudice, and systemic oppression. In regards to affirmative action (among other positive

     Affirmative action is an attempt by the United States to amend a long history of racial and sexual discrimination. But these days it seems to incite, not ease, the nations internal divisions. Opponents of affirmative action say that the battle for equal rights is over, and that requiring quotas that favor one group over another is un-American. The people that defend it say that the playing field is not level, and that providing advantages for minorities and women is fair considering the discrimination those groups tolerated for years. This paper will discuss the history of affirmative action, how it is implemented in society today, and evaluate the arguments that it presents.

Imagine a student named Billy is applying for a scholarship. Along with Billy, his friend Juan is applying for the same scholarship. Billy and Juan are equally qualified. The only difference between the two is that Billy is white, and Juan is Mexican-American. When the two find out who got the scholarship, they discover that Juan got it, but Billy didn’t. Billy wonders why Juan got it but he didn’t. The answer is affirmative action. Affirmative action is an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, and it is an outdated program that is creating unequal opportunities for non-diverse people.

In the United States justice is defined as equal treatment of all its citizens under the law. When one citizen is mistreated an injustice has been committed against all people. Affirmative Action is a program whose purpose is to make sure that citizens are treated equally by enforcing a set of policies which are designed to promote the inclusion of all individuals regardless of race, disability, sex, or religion. In the United States democracy we are all equal, but some groups have been enjoying more advantages in society than others for centuries. Current statistics show the depth of modern day racial gaps, which are rooted in historical discrimination and modern-day structural racism. Generations of nominal disadvantages have created

Affirmative Action Affirmative Action efforts were started in 1964 to end the long history of overlooking qualified people of color and women from higher education. Affirmative Action sets standards for a business or office of admissions, so that a white man does not have the upper-hand over an equally or greater educated minority. The initial way the government tried to justify Affirmative Action was to develop a human resource approach: first identifying the problem, which is racism then establishing the solution (Phillips 67). The intent of Affirmative Action helps cut down discrimination in the work place and in schools, despite the fact that some believe that affirmative action is a

Contrary to popular belief, African Americans are not the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action. Rather, women have benefited from these policies as well which promote equality in employment and education for them as well. When we think of affirmative action it is easy to assume it only relates to the Black race. This is due to the fact that critics of affirmative action characterize it as a Black issue because this enables them to portray these policies as undeserved hand-outs to an under qualified group of people.

Affirmative action remains and will continue to remain a controversial issue in American politics and daily discourse. Both proponents and opponents of affirmative action stand behind truths and myths, but it is crucial that we debunk some of these myths before blindly supporting them. Laws have changed, but discrimination persists. As President Lyndon Johnson said in 1965, "You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting

Race is an issue that is embedded in the nation’s history and continues to spur discussions on how the different minorities and ethnic groups must be treated fairly. Affirmative action is a recent attempt to solve the discriminations produced by racial inequality. However, affirmative action is also being scrutinized as scholars and the public debate the benefits and harms of affirmative action.

The policies of Affirmative action were not designed to reduce racism; they were created to implement policies for equality. Many racial prejudices have been fuel by past events in this country history that cannot be undone. The American Physiological institute found that despite their increase for racial equality white Americans are reluctant to implement reform policies because of negative stereotypes of African Americans as lazy, welfare-dependent or somehow culturally more prone to violence. (Bobo, Lawrence D. and Fox, Cybelle 2003) To reduce racial prejudices and stereotypes, the country will need to implement reform that addresses the inequalities and stereotyping that exist today. There is also the topic of gender prejudices that have been by media. In an article by the Chronicle gave light on gender stereotypes such as “Women are inherently more caring and more relational than men“ and “Boys have a mathematics gene, or at least a biological tendency to excel in math, that girls do not possess.” (BARNETT and RIVERS, 2004)The article gave valid research that theses stereotypes are more of a product of social engineering rather than fact based. IT is imperative that affirmative action review and critique stereotypes in order to absolve them

A controversial policy issue within education policy and equality is the affirmative action. This policy, “is mostly about ensuring that all people have equal access to opportunity and success” (Cengage). The reason this is crucial is because it attempts to make sure that every student will have an equal opportunity to carry out being a student, and learn to their full potential. This policy helps to attempt at reversing negative effects from years of discrimination, as well as help those with disadvantages in the workplace and at school. Affirmative action involves reaching out to minority communities in order to assist individuals in those communities to take advantage of employment as well as educational opportunities (Cengage). Some examples

Affirmative action allows university, companies, etc. to establish and maintain diversity. This is necessary because it breaks down color barriers and moves America towards a more united and fair country. Currently statistics show that African Americans, Hispanics, etc. earn less than their white counterparts, how can we call ourselves a nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all when certain people are paid more just because of their race?