Louis P. Pojman argues in his article, The Case against Affirmative Action, that even in extreme cases reverse racism and strong affirmative action are wrong. Pojman differentiates between strong and weak affirmative action and in his article he focus on strong affirmative action. Pojman defines strong affirmative action as preferential treatment to someone based on race, ethnicity, or gender in favor of the under represented groups to get equal rights. The first argument made for affirmative action that Pojman disagrees with is the role model argument.…
In order for Thomas Hill to justify the affirmative action policies, he incorporates two types of critical thinking. The first being forward-looking, which is simply seeing a drawback in a forward , or brighter future. However, the problem with forward-looking is that making a decision based on only what seems to make the most people joyful results in forgetting the negative consequences. To go more in depth, the downside of forward-looking regarding the affirmative action policies is that by only making a decision that makes the most people happy could result in the main message to be misunderstood. Furthermore, if an affirmative action was about race, the result of forward looking solution could of an increase of racial tension.…
This is a heated age and the policy of affirmative action is a controversial topic. Ever since it was first introduced in the 1960s, the court has affected the use of affirmative action significantly because its rulings upheld the policy’s constitutionally and made it more acceptable to the public. To begin with, it is important to acknowledge that the court was not the only arena in which affirmative action policies have been challenged. It has also been challenged in arenas such as college admission and the job application process. In my opinion, the case of Brown v. Board of Education had a significant impact on the introducing the affirmative action.…
Affirmative action policies allow for equal opportunity and throughout history have helped end discrimination in the workforce as well as many different type of organizations. Minorities are given the opportunity to compete for job opportunities and admissions to educational institutions. However, not everyone agrees with these types of policies and believe that this is a form of “reverse discrimination” against white individuals (1). These individuals argue that minorities that include people of color and women are given preference and although the qualifications may be the same amongst all, the minorities will be granted the opportunity simply because of their skin color or gender. In “Affirmative Action and Fairness” Robert Fullinwider discusses how affirmative action is viewed differently…
Shelby steels view’s on affirmative action aligns with the neo-conservative view. He recaps on the theory explaining that affirmative action and other entitlement programs stem from the presence of white liberal guilt. He recognizes this as the guilt which roots from the ill- intentions and actions of their ancestors which motivates them to sponsor and advocate for these government assistance programs. White liberals believe that by installing a program, which is intended to elevate the black community in an already developed society, they have indirectly cleared their guilty consciences. Steels states, “In a very real sense, entitlement programs for blacks serve the personal interests of whites as well.”…
Dear University of Texas, Austin Office of Admissions, I write this letter to you in regards to your race-based affirmative action program that has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court as of 2013. Just a few years ago, a woman by the name of Abigail Fisher challenged your affirmative action program created to increase the enrollment of minority students. The Supreme Court decided in favor of this program, and by doing so, upheld the use of race-based affirmative action in higher education, specifically in your institution (“Equality” 1). I believe that after the Supreme Court’s decision, rather than continuing the use of race-based affirmative action, you should have taken a closer look at your admission process and made changes accordingly.…
As it is now, it facilitates the entrance to college to minorities of the higher classes. In its current form, affirmative action is well intentioned, but it is rather ineffective, and it sets itself up for causing a stir among whites who feel that minority status is taking precedent over academic performance, and calling this practice reverse discrimination. The case against the University of Michigan is a prime example of this. But William Symonds has a solution that would not only allow for more racial integration, but with race not playing a big role, if any roll at all in being a factor in deciding college admissions. Basing affirmative action off of financial need, with the money provided for the less fortunate to attend four-year universities would not only draw from the pool of minorities that make up a large portion of the lower classes, it would also give everyone a truly equal opportunity to attend college.…
Admissions boards know this and through the use of Affirmative Action practices simply take the fact that certain racial groups have lower numbers of applicants and give preferential treatment to members of that racial group in the application process in order to create a ratio of students more representative of the demographics of the country (Liu, 2010). The practice of blindingly accepting the notion that just because someone is from a less represented racial class is dangerous due to the fact that not everyone from that race has had the same experiences and this pushes the narrative that everyone from a racial group are treated the same by…
Jamie Randall Elmoznino English 09 February 2016 Affirmative Action; All Used Up? During the 1960 's, African Americans and white people were segregated. African Americans couldn 't go to the same school as white people. They couldn 't eat in the same restaurants.…
Discrimination has been around for a very long time. This has been a lot more noticeable in the past than it is now seeing as we study things of that nature in school. In the past, there were laws and not just social instances of discrimination that people had to endure. These laws are especially prominent in the Jim Crow laws. Of course, people like Rosa Parks took initiative and stood up to some of the laws of the time to ultimately to affect change.…
Regents of the University of California at Davis (Davis) v. Allan P. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1948) is an influential case that determined whether or not Affirmative action is constitutional in admissions decisions. Davis had two separate admissions programs, one for general admissions and one for special admissions. The special admissions program was created for students who wish to be considered “disadvantaged” (meaning minority students). Davis accepted 100 students every year for their medical program; 16 of those slots were reserved for students accepted through the special admissions program. Evaluating how the Supreme Court ruled in Bakke could help determine if Affirmative action is the best way to achieve diversity at your…
Affirmative action, by definition, is an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education. Using varying instruments and policies, Affirmative Action aims to help underrepresented groups have a better job opportunities or college admissions. Generations of people have been disadvantaged by institutionalized discrimination and one way to remedy this is to place a policy that evens out the playing field. There has been numerous legal cases against affirmative action concerning college admissions, and a few have made it as far as the Supreme Court including Bakke v. Regents, Univ. of California (1978), Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), Parents Involved v. Seattle School District (2007), and most recently Fisher v. University of Texas (2013 & 2016).…
Affirmative Action Affirmative action has been a highly controversial issue in America since its creation. The policy that was put in place to make up for the poor treatment of racial minorities quickly became reverse discrimination: encouraging the professional and academic worlds to make decisions about a person based on their race which is, by definition, racism. The policy now serves as an offense to both sides – giving a race-based advantage to minorities against majorities and considering said race minorities to be innately disadvantaged. Affirmative action is a policy that puts a stigma on minority groups and ironically implies that a minority status is disadvantageous. College admissions should discontinue their use of affirmative…
Many universities in the United States have adopted affirmative action policies in efforts to correct discrimination. Some of these policies are racially based and intended to give support to disadvantaged, historically-discriminated minorities. Although it may help a few, race based affirmative action in universities should be abolished because it is discriminatory and creates division, may actually be helpful affected minority students, and masks the real problem. Race based affirmative action is itself discriminatory and promotes division. Rather than judging applicants solely based on their academic ability, universities can also judge them based on their race, preferring certain races over others.…
In the early sixties blacks began to fight for equal rights and in 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act (Blumenthal, 2005). There were several different sections to the act and the House and Senate could not vote until the act was complete (Blumenthal, 2005). One section was Title VII, which opened jobs up to all races (Blumenthal, 2005). Representative Howard W. Smith proposed that “sex” be added to it, which said there could be no discrimination against blacks, or women (Blumenthal, 2005, p.14). He did this without sincerity, as he was vehemently opposed to the addition, as were most southern legislators (Blumenthal, 2005).…