Affirmative Action
Is "affirmative action" an effective remedy for the historicalof color and women' Since Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" of the mid-proponents of affirmative action have referred to it as a necessaryof racism and sexism in the American workplace. However, its detractorsreferred to it as nothing more than a short-term fix for minorities andallowed to benefit from the practice of "reverse discrimination" as aeliminating a traditional form of discrimination. The Supreme Court in ahas upheld the spirit of affirmative action as a necessary "check" on thehiring practices but a dominant white majority, but they have often struckquota system as quantitative method of insuring equal treatment in regardsapplicants to colleges, professional schools, and the corporate workforce. Our society's foremost governmental and economic institutions aredemands for affirmative action - that is, the policies designed to correctand ethnic inequalities in promotion, hiring, and access to higher
In effect, we could ask, why should the measure of achievement be a groupnorm' Forinstance, Asians do better than whites on math SAT's; should whites whooutperform thewhite group norm be given special preference' Don't these types ofarguments made byproponents of affirmative action that some groups are inherently inferiorin certain areasand that these programs will accomplish nothing more than a simple maskingof theresults. The Congress has done away with preferential treatment forminority-ownedfirms in awarding small government contracts. Conservativesbitterly opposeaffirmative action whereas liberals feel that such policies are necessaryif our society is toundo the effects of past discrimination. Minority candidates with lowerwritten testmarks are also taken over other candidates if a certain percentage of thoseminorities arenot represented on the force. Carl Cohen has many written many scholarly articles oppsingAffirmativeAction. ven moreforceful in the last twenty-five years, throughout many parts of thecountry, are thedemands to do away with affirmative action policies. "Why hasaffirmativeaction, which has aroused so much resentment on the part of white men, notdone more tomitigate the effects of white male privilege'" (Bergmann, 1996, 53-9) Thetruth is thatmany such programs have not been seriously implemented. Forinstance, when theSupreme Court struck down "separate but equal" facilities and institutionsbecause socialscientific evidence suggested that separate institutions were inherentlyunequal. This is simply too high a price to pay for adhering to theprinciple of race-blindadmissions and race-blind hires today. The requirementswere relaxed toallow lesser physical candidates to pass. In companies wherethesepolicies are implemented, white men determine the effectiveness of thehires. " (Kilson, 1995,470) In 1970, forexample, "barely two percent of the officers in the armed forces wereblack; twenty yearslater, thanks partly to affirmative action, twelve percent of officers wereAfricanAmericans. "(Thernstrom, New Republic, 1999, 27) In California, steps have been takento eliminateaffirmative action policies in the state's universities and colleges. "These policies always benefit middle-class Americans disproportionately. Let'sface it: thewhite man is still very much in charge.
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Acceptance Essays
