Affirmative Action is one of the many social issues facing America today. Affirmative action was signed into place in 1961 by President Kennedy and allows minority groups or people who face discrimination to become employed or get an education that is equal to that of a white male. Groups that Affirmative Action aims to help are women, blacks, Latinos, and people with disabilities. While these policies were signed to slowly rid the workforce and schools from discrimination, it hurts people who do not face discrimination, specifically whites. Many white men and women lose special opportunities to work or go to college because of certain standards that the Affirmative Action laws require. Universities and the military require a certain number of minorities in order to meet the standards and have a more diverse atmosphere. An example of this is the California V. Bakke supreme court case of 1978.
March 6th, 1961 Affirmative Action policies in higher education were implemented (Infoplease). Affirmative Action was designed to provide equal access to universities for historically underrepresented minorities. The argument of whether Affirmative Action should be decimated is a simple one. Students who have the academic credentials and earn their way into college deserve to be accepted. For no reason should previously excluded minorities gain unfair leverage in an attempt to “right past wrongs”. But with Affirmative Action banned in only eight states, we are left with two questions; how exactly Affirmative Action affects the culture within universities to have it seen as an unjust policy, and can diversity continue to survive without this program.
Affirmative action was created to assist minority groups against discrimination, but affirmative action does more harm than what it can do to help. Affirmative action was created with the intention of leveling the playing field so that everyone can have an equal opportunity to be hired or accepted in to a school, but it does the opposite of what it is meant to do. Affirmative action is reverse discrimination against white males, lesser qualified people are admitted into jobs and colleges, and not all people have an equal opportunity to advance.
In my opinion Affirmative action is a touchy subject, just like abortion. There are places where it should belong and places it shouldn't. I think it should be implemented in places of business where needed. For example if two candidates for a position are interviewed for a job and one happens to be white and the other black, and the black candidate is obviously more qualified for the job but doesn't get the job then that is a place where Affirmative action needs to b added to the system. It is sad that something like Affirmative action even had to be thought of but it is a reality that racism still exists and probably will continue to
Many white people believe that affirmative action is not fair and limits their chances of acceptance when applying to college or jobs. But what they do not know is affirmative action has be proven to help Caucasian females more than any other race or gender. The reason why is because affirmative action does not only aid people other
Affirmative action is a conjunction of policies an organization or institution engage where a person aspiring to become a part of that institution or organization, shall not be rejected based on their race. Affirmative action is also known as “positive discrimination”. These policies are meant to improve the opportunities to groups who have been historically discriminated, in the American society. I’m sure we’ve all heard comments from people before saying things like, “slavery ended a long time ago, so why are black people still reaping the benefits?” or “Affirmative action discriminates against white people”, isn’t that reverse
Affirmative action has been around for decades. Some believe it isn’t fair but others do. Those who believe and agree with affirmative action tend to say, “The principle of affirmative action is to promote societal equality through the preferential treatment of socioeconomically disadvantaged people” (Bidmead, Andrew pg 3). Others that disagree with it and find it unfair simply see it as another form of discrimination, giving one group extra advantages based upon nothing but their skin color (Cline, Austin pg 1). I believe that affirmative action is indeed fair because it gives minorities a better chance at having a successful career in their near future.
Public administration tradition in American society is full of ideals on scientific and efficiency orientation of the organization but in relation with affirmative action paradigm in public administration, the value – based practices has been emphasized and gave rise democracy, representativeness, moral and ethical neutrality and equity. The 19th century public personnel reform encouraged the public administrators to formulate new policy with new direction and advocates for change. Social equity is another added feature of the new public administration towards social and political advantages. However, the social equity in practice may somehow result in differential treatment depending upon the needs and interests of different people. The affirmative action in public administration has been supported with the concepts of responsive and representative government through the composition of Civil Service Commission (Galeton, W. 2002).
On face value, affirmative action accomplishes its’ goals of helping minorities attain opportunities that were once blocked, or still would be blocked due to gender bias, racial discrimination and other injustices. So in that sense, I applaud the policy, because it adequately provides “equality of opportunity”. Personally, I am for affirmative action, but I do not want to benefit from it at all. As contradictory as this sound, I have my reasons as to why personally hold this belief.
Those who support affirmative action say that this system erases racism, but instead it actually enables reverse racism. Reverse discrimination, which is discrimination against non-minority persons, has been a huge problem since the rise of affirmative action. There are many cases of white people being discriminated against because of their skin color. During the 1970s there is one court case that sticks out. It was about a boy of white skin color. He tried to apply to medical school and was denied twice. He went to the supreme court twice about how he was denied because of his skin color. (Regents)There is also another court case where a group of firefighters went to court because they were refused a raise because of they were white and not a minority.( "PSLweb) This system, now, raises more problems than solutions. Because of affirmative action there is a new racist target and that is white people. White people are being discriminated against because of the inequality they may have caused in the past. I believe that isn’t fair. With affirmative action they are just fighting racism with even more racism. Fighting fire with fire doesn’t solve anything. White people don’t have to be punished because of something their ancestors did a long time ago. We should learn to just let go of the past and learn from it.
A topic like Affirmative Action is one that I usually try to avoid during casual conversation because in can quickly turn a conversation hostile. One of the reasons that these conversations turn hostile is due to the fact that I am a white male, which, many would see as two facts that automatically make my opinion on the matter inadmissible. With that being said, just because I would rather not discuss it on a regular basis does not mean that I do not have an opinion on the matter. Also, just because my skin tone and gender would have landed me on the better side of the fence in the past, does not mean that I do not have educated and sympathetic opinions on the matter. Ultimately, I see Affirmative Action as a positive thing which is meant to help out groups of people who are struggling to accomplish what many would call the "American dream". However, I do have several quarrels with how Affirmative Action is carried out.
Affirmative Action has been around for a very long time, as time progress so have the people of this nation. The people we were in the 50’s and 60’s are significantly different from who we are today. I think that Affirmative Action is a good contribution and should be kept around. When I think about all the great things that minorities can do I don’t see were any harm is being done.
Student affairs and higher education professionals must be familiar with legal obligations in regards to their diversity efforts policies in order to be fully compliant and successful in their endeavors.
The whole purpose of the affirmative action is to equalize social oddities and therefore contributes to equal rights and protection of laws. Not only I don't find affirmative action unconstitutional, I believe it's the proper action a government should take in case there are disproportions in society.
Affirmative action is a rather complicated subject that is packed with nuance. It can be difficult to fully assess whether affirmative action is a good thing when discussing it in terms of what is just and what is unjust. Professor Michael J. Sandel argues in favor of affirmative action. However, the arguments he uses when presenting his case are not particularly strong.