Analysis Of Affirmative Action By William Brooks

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 It is my belief that affirmative action today is out of date and is

In his commencement address at Howard University one year after signing into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson raised a question regarding the growing inequality between white and black Americans after World War II despite the country’s prosperity. Ira Katznelson’s When Affirmative Action Was White posits that the vast programs such as the New Deal and G.I. Bill of Rights of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, seen as progressive, were inherently racist. Katznelson discusses these programs and how they affected black Americans in their various political, economic, and social spheres. He examines these problematic and discriminatory areas under four scopes: welfare, the workplace, military service, and education.

Presenting the understandings of the mechanisms that created affirmative actions in order to change the common misconceptions and “reposition the direction that we think, talk and act about affirmative action” (xi). His intention is to shift the focus of the readers in three different ways, The first way is to change how we view the history of affirmative action. The second shift in focus is how we understand affirmative action and what we think about when we hear those words. Katznelson points out that when we hear affirmative action we only think about it in terms of top jobs and higher education. While poverty and inequality are not as prevalent in our discussions of affirmative action. The last of the three is “placing affirmative action on more secure ground by binding new deal and fair deal history to the argument about when, why and how should count in crafting todays policies” (xii). Katznelson is focused on the history and our perception of affirmative action. As stated in the book he believes many different authors have covered the subject of affirmative action in relation to moral, constitutional and practical issues, nor is it an attempt to perform a historical analysis on affirmative

In Professor William Shaw’s The Organization and the People In It, Shaw delves into the debate that is affirmative action. According to Shaw, “affirmative action means programs taking the race or sex of employees or job candidates into account as part of an effort to correct imbalances in employment that exist as a result of past discrimination, either in the company itself or in the larger society”(Shaw, p. 437). Affirmative action promotes the diversity of job opportunities for both genders and all races. Some of the opportunities can cause an unfair advantage to minorities when paired against equal or sometimes better-qualified white counterparts. This can become a moral issue by causing unfair advantages to some people. By attempting to level the playing field, affirmative action actually over compensates for potential discrimination and can place white males at a disadvantage. Affirmative action attempts to balance the application system for college or postgraduate work, however at the expense of some qualified students.

There are many supporters and opponents of Affirmative Action. The focus of Affirmative action is meant to be an attempt at equality throughout society. Every sector in America would be equal and unprejudiced. On the other hand, adopting affirmative action would force many employers to replace hard-working employees with those possibly less qualified simply due to their gender or ethnicity. Throughout history, people have been categorized into different groups. These groupings were based on certain characteristics people shared, whether it was their ethnicity, race, gender, or religion. Society is notorious for distinguishing among different groups and favoring one or two of them. Undoubtedly, this separation of peoples, led to increased tension between various groups. As time progressed, the conflicts intensified, and it became apparent that a change was necessary. So I intend to educate the reader on the origin of Affirmative Action; how it impacted the American society; is it still needed in today’s environment; what are some of the drawbacks or issues that came from implementing Affirmative Action, and finally what is the most beneficial aspect from Affirmative Action. One of the most famous quotes about Affirmative Action comes from President Lyndon Johnson who explained the rationale behind the use of affirmative action to achieve equal opportunity in a 1965 speech: “You do not take a person, who for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring

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.

One of the controversial topics and philosophical questions that really sparked my interest was affirmative action. The author of text that I will be drawing connections from is Tom L. Beauchamp and his publication is titled “In Defense of Affirmative Action”. The theme behind his work is self-explanatory from the title. Beauchamp states the strong arguments as to why people want to abandon affirmative action, but also gives his own insight and support to defend its existence and continued implementation. He understands that there is flaws with affirmative action, but the policy does more good than bad, thus it should be continued.

Affirmative action defies the Constitution, is a racist policy that removes merit from decision, creates a gap in society that betters some groups over others in reverse discrimination, and although is supposed to be unbiased and fair, remains a racist policy that defies a nation of freedom.

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.

The purpose of affirmative action is to ensure equal opportunity for minorities. But it has strayed from its original intent and has become largely a program to achieve not equal opportunity but equal results. It is a system of quotas forced upon American businesses and working class by the federal government. A law which forces people to look at race before looking at the individual cannot promote equal opportunity. Affirmative action continues the judgement of minorities by race; it causes reverse discrimination, and contradicts its purpose.

Though, on the flip side, the American dream would not be available to all with affirmative action. This program diminishes the opportunities for whites to achieve their dreams. From education to the workforce, affirmative action holds bias towards minorities over Caucasians. Despite being “more qualified,” the whites are not placed into certain colleges or workplaces because of race. Even if a Caucasian student receives a near perfect score on the SAT, a student being of color would be the same equivalence. In addition to this, the affirmative action’s policies give minority applicants a minor self-confidence that they do not need to perform better than their white counterparts, just racially distinguishable. This shows that affirmative action does not focus on abilities but rather demographics, thus, showing the controversy with this program today. Above all, affirmative action violates the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment forbids the states to restrict the basic rights of citizens to equal opportunities. However, accepting certain groups of applicants over others due to race proves that affirmative action endorses racism. Therefore, how is the program equal if only race is the factor? How can this program be equality for all, if the whites are being discriminated against?

Racial discrimination occurs everyday to many different people. In America,the individuals who are usually discriminated against are the minorities like African Americans and Hispanics. Affirmative action is a policy that was created and has been claimed to be positive discrimination. The policy was created to give equal opportunity to groups of people who are usually discriminated against. Although Affirmative action has been named to be positive and support minorities, it is still unjust. There should be no positive aspects of racial discrimination. Many believe that it is only racial discrimination or racist if a caucasian person discriminates against a person of color but do not consider it racism if it happens to be the other way around. Racial Discrimination in any form is harmful which is why affirmative action policies are not correct.

A major controversy encompassing the country is the issue of affirmative action. Many believe that the abolition, or at least restructure, of affirmative action in the United States will benefit the nation for many logical reasons. Originally, affirmative action began as an attempt to eliminate discrimination and provide a source of opportunity; affirmative action did not begin as an attempt to support just minorities and women. In addition, affirmative action naturally creates resentment when the less qualified are preferred instead of the people actually deserve the admission or job. Another reason that has existed since the abolition of slavery is the myth that women and ?minorities? cannot compete

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.

According to Raymond A. Noe, affirmative action is an organization’s active effort to find opportunities to hire or promote people in a particular group (Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 68). There are various arguments for and against affirmative action. Some believe that it gives certain groups of people an equal opportunity to find employment where they would otherwise be kicked under the rug. Others believe that even though it creates an opportunity for minority groups, the issue of reverse discrimination comes into play where once predominantly white male jobs offerings go to women and minority groups instead. The topic of affirmative action remains very controversial and