Affirmative Action
             Leveling the Playing Field, or Reversing Discrimination?
             In its creation during the term of Lyndon B. Johnson, affirmative action was a designed program implemented with the hopes of ending racism and discrimination in this country. How was it intended that our nation carry out this goal? "By instituting a good faith effort by employees and employers to address past and/or present discrimination through a variety of specific, result-oriented procedures."(OAP) In theory this would appear as a logical approach to a problem which has plagued our nation for several years. However, was this the eventual outcome of this seemingly necessary step beyond equal opportunity statutes that simply ban discriminatory practices? Today there are groups that would argue for both sides of this issue. The purpose of this paper is to look at both stances, and see whether or not affirmative action has a place in our society today. Provided in this paper is evidence and claims made by both sides of the argument. After reviewing this evidence, I w!
             ill attempt to make a claim as to what the correct outcome should be for this controversial topic.
             At the undergraduate level, the denial of white and Asian students to make way for less qualified blacks and Hispanics has become a common practice at institutions across the country. While few records are available that represent the practice of affirmative action at the undergraduate level, the records that were presented by the University of California Los Angeles in respect to admission numbers after they outlawed the policy of affirmative action are quite alarming. Before abandoning the program in 1998, Asian and white students only had a one percent chance of acceptance, while minorities were fifteen times as likely to be admitted. During the transition from 1997 to 1998 (Post affirmative action) there was a forty-three percent decli...