For decades affirmative action has been an issue of much controversy in America. Affirmative action’s goal is to help those who suffer from discrimination, giving them a boost by favoring them in areas like education and employment. Someone always has something to say, whether it be for affirmative action or against it. With personal stories from And Still We Rise, “Carlos Doesn’t Remember”, and “The LIfe and Times of Strider Wolf” we can see evidence for both sides. Where Anecdotes from Olivia’s, Toya’s and Carlos’s life bring to light their struggles as minorities in inner cities, Strider Wolf’s hardships exist just an hour away in a rural Maine town. Even though the lives of Olivia’s and Carlos’s may seemingly appear to be very different …show more content…
Although he has not jumped from foster home to foster how like Olivia and Carlos, when his grandparents fell behind on their rent, they were forced to move from parking lot to parking lot, campsite to campsite, until they were finally able to find a home before the start of winter. Before coming to live with his grandparents, strider suffered from near-fatal abuse by his mother’s boyfriend. He had to hospitalized, “damage that doctors later would testify they typically saw in high speed, head-on car crashes.”(Boston Globe). Strider started school and seemed to be a bright young boy. His grandparents showed him and his brother all the love they had. Even though In Striders story, it doesn’t mention affirmative action, we can connect in and use it as an anecdote to display another perspective on the issue. Although Strider is not as old as Olivia or Carlos he too will soon be reaching the end of high school and looking to apply to college. What will happen to him? Will he be aided by affirmative action like Carlos, Olivia, and many other gifted students in similar circumstances? Since Strider is not a minority he will not have the assistance to help him succeed post …show more content…
I now believe that the current system set in place, while beneficial does not serve as the best way to help those in need. I think that affirmative action should be expanded to not only benefit those suffering from race discrimination like Olivia, and Carlos, it should also be based on a person’s socioeconomic standing. This way, Strider and people like him will also be benefited. Some people may argue that it doesn’t matter and that it is discrimination that is the big issue, but after listening to Carlos, he says that when he goes to school he does not feel intimidated or lesser because he is of a different raee, but because he knows he has less than they do, that they are “better” than him as society has made him believe through entitlement. How is it fair that even though Strider, Carlos, and Olivia all suffer from the same issues that only two are benefited on account of simply raee? Another amendment I would make to affirmative action is starting earlier. As seen in Carlos’s story and in the book And Still We Rise it is clear that affirmative action simply doesn’t reach kids in time. A program put into place starting around the fourth grade is a perfect way to help more kids in need. We need to get kids interested in their education and the future they could have before the hardships of their life take
Instead, the opposite appears to have happened. When the emphasis is placed on aiding people with certain skin colors or ethnic backgrounds, affirmative action sets the races further apart than before. Could this be just another form of segregation? The attempts at boosting minorities to the level of the others have grotesquely failed. To raise minorities the government has pushed down the majority group, fueling racial conflicts. In addition, lowering the bar for minorities for admission into jobs or schools has created a harmful atmosphere for them. Because some of them could not originally qualify on merit and skills, many face failure or extra hardship when they get ushered into their job or school. As Charles T. Canady said in his speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D. C., "Preferences do nothing to help develop the skills necessary for the economic and social advancement of the disadvantaged" (43). Meanwhile the majorities receive punishment because of their lack of a specific skin tone or origin. "Entitlements by race, sex, ethnicity and sexual orientation-categories that in no way reflect merit-" Shelby Steele described, "are at the root of the great social evils in American life" (175). It is unfair to reward or turn away applicants because of something that is only theirs by ascribed means. When prospective college students or job applicants are considered, the competition should be solely based
In this spellbinding lecture, the author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son offers a unique, inside-out view of race and racism in America. Expertly overcoming the defensiveness that often surrounds these issues, Wise provides a non-confrontational explanation of white privilege and the damage it does not only to people of color, but to white people as well. This is an invaluable classroom resource: an ideal introduction to the social construction of racial identities, and a critical new tool for exploring the often invoked – but seldom explained – concept of white privilege.
In the United States early history, Native Americans, Africans and Europeans were marginalized by White People, and categorized as the minorities because they were seen as the inferior race. For nearly three centuries, the criteria for membership in these groups were similar, comprising a person's appearance, their social circle (how they lived), and their known non-White ancestry. History played a major part, as persons with known slave ancestors were assumed to be African (or, in later usage, black), regardless of whether they also had European ancestry. Most often these minorities face significant discrimination in various forms whether through voting, law policy, unequal pay, or even implicit racism, minorities of all kinds have been and still are being put down today. The book Between the World and Me is a letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s fifteen-year-old son, Samori. He weaves his personal, historical, and intellectual development into his ruminations on how to live in a black body in America. Not only does Coates give his personal experience in how he experience in first hand discrimination, racism, marginalization but he also gives vivid images on how he lived multiple worlds and how those experiences changed him. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Gloria Anzaldua exposes her feelings about social and cultural difficulties that Mexican immigrants face when being raised in the United States. She establishes comparisons among English, Spanish and their variations on how
It is evident that there are still a number of falsehoods that contribute to the adversity many people of color have to overcome in this country. Yale Law School professor, Harlon L. Dalton and Sociologists Naomi Gerstal and Natalia Sarkisian dissect two such falsehoods in their respective essays. In his essay, “Horatio Alger” Dalton takes on the rags-to-riches myth commonly portrayed in Horatio Alger’s works of fiction. Likewise, Gerstal and Sarkisian’s study on Black, White, and Latino families reveals data that debunks the widely held belief that families of color are weaker and more disorganized than their white counterparts. While both essays examine myths that negatively affect Black and Latino people, the authors often use different
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.
This case shows how men and women of all races can be affected by the two headed monster called affirmative action. Affirmative action was established so that members of society such women, minorities or those with handicaps would be guaranteed an honest opportunity to achieve goals, professions or pursue higher education without discrimination. However, when a person’s sex, nationality, social settings and race compete against one another even those the act is intended to protect become
On May 13, 1990, an eager yet serious Shelby Steele claims that affirmative action is “reformist and corrective, even repentant and redemptive”, in the New York Times. Despite the different political views, Steele does not want to insult these sincere intentions despite the conflicts that will arise once these policies take effect. Steele believes that affirmative action is similar to a “...Faustian bargain” as it creates more moral problems rather than fixing them. Shelby Steele points out the flaws of affirmative action and hopes to bring awareness to affirmative action by using appeals to logic, credibility, emotion, and other canons of rhetoric. Steele’s plan is to persuade the readers into believing the harmful effects of the policy.
The American Dream has never been available to minority citizens as easily as it is to American-born citizens. Affirmative action was first implemented around the year 1972, however it was not widely accepted or practiced. During this time society was just getting used to including women in higher education institutions so the concept of including minorities in higher education was almost non-existent. My Beloved World, by Sonia Sotomayor shows the challenges that a first generation, Puerto Rican, lower socioeconomic female had during this time. Through her autobiography she shows the struggles she faced throughout her life, focusing on her application to college, college experience and insight into her cultural background. My Beloved
Affirmative Action has become of the most controversial social policy issues to be discussed in recent years. It is controversial because it challenges fundamental American beliefs. As Seymour Martin Lipset put it: "Affirmative Action policies have forced a sharp confrontation between two core American values: equality and individualism."(Dudley7) This values oriented approach, which pervades popular discussion and derives from functionalist sociology, fails to explain why similar challenges to our core values did not in the past result in the kind of spite surrounding Affirmative Action today. As the popular lore and written history of urban politics in America
Discrimination against race, gender, religion, or other social characteristics is occurring in all parts of the United States almost every day. Unfortunately, the U.S. has a history of extreme case of discrimination, which has evoked controversy and in worse cases, violence. To discourage any more of adverse discernment towards certain individuals, the Federal government has imposed legislation called affirmative action. According to At Issue: Affirmative Action, “Affirmative action is designed to promote access to opportunities in education, employment, housing, and government contracts among certain designated groups, such as women and minorities“ (At Issue). This law is necessary in today’s society in order to maintain equality and
Among the citizens of America affirmative action is a sensitive subject with some seeing it as a necessity to help those who have been repressed and others seeing it as reverse racism. Many Americans may also be conflicted about affirmative action, because it is such a complex issue. People fervently debate affirmative action, because it is a complex issue revolving around one’s own race, experiences, and desires.
From the beginning of the story, we are shown racial inequalities. Ellison introduces us to our character who is a broke and hungry African American economically struggling to save his lady friend’s, Laura’s, life. The protagonist “got no birth certificate to
When addressing legal issues of diversity in the modern day era, one main topic is brought to discussion, affirmative action. It was put into place by the federal government in the 1960’s and was initially developed to close the gap in relation to the privileged majority and the unprivileged minority in America (Aguirre Jr. & Martinez, 2003). While it has been controversial since its origin, it remains controversial as critics argue it tries to equalize the impact of so many
Tragedy has the ability to simultaneously bring people together and push them apart. Well, such is essence when Judith Ortiz Cofer, the writer of “American History,” explores the theme of tragedy while she dwells upon the day tragedy struck the world. A numerous amount of people in her community were devastated by the unexpected death of former President John F. Kennedy, as they agreed with his stance against racial discriminations and prejudice. However, Cofer lacks the understanding of discrimination towards her culture, race, and gender. Rather than collectively facing the tragedy of JFK’s death, she is more taken by her own tragedy; being shunned by the mother of her neighborhood crush, Eugene. Recognizing that Cofer is ignorant to
This section will be outlining the weaknesses of affirmative action or the arguments against it. Affirmative Action is supposed to be a program designed to end racism, but isn't it really justifying racism by its own actions. Its policies judge people solely on skin color and gender. That is discrimination in itself. Is discrimination the solution to resolving past discrimination? No, it's not. No program can be considered good when it hurts others. Affirmative Action tried to help minorities and women, but in the process, reverse discrimination has taken place. Now, white males are discriminated against. This can not be an affirmative program if there is a form of discrimination involved. Instead of choosing a candidate for a job or for school admission, because of one's color or gender, it should be because of their talents and abilities. The best any colored male or female should be selected for the job, or to get accepted into school. Why should some people get special preferences over