Prompt: Defend, challenge, or qualify the consideration of race, gender, and other unchangeable attributes when selecting individuals for public fields such as government positions or admissions for higher educational spots.
Affirmative Action, Adverse Aftermath Race and discrimination are just as commonly discussed, debated, and argued in today’s political scene as they were when John F. Kennedy first introduced affirmative action in the late 1960’s to help enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Affirmative action and other programs that consider race and gender to vet candidates seem to be easily implementable systems that combat still-present biases in today’s society. Why is it then that these programs are just as controversial today …show more content…
However, there are several problems with affirmative action. It would make sense that schools that implement affirmative action would be more balanced. However, “the levels of racial preferences at American law schools are remarkably homogenous across institutions… [in ways that are] hard to distinguish from racially segregated admissions”, implicating that affirmative action may not even change the rate of admissions (Sandler). The majority of the US population also believes that “preferential treatment” should not be used so stringently. In a 2012 poll only 33% of Americans agreed that institutions should take “every possible effort to improve the position of blacks and other minorities, even if it means giving them preferential treatment” (Values). Beyond this, the logic employed by affirmative action is dubious at best. It really doesn’t seem reasonable that a Native American kid who’s parents never had a formal education should gain the same benefits as an American kid who had one great grandparents who was Cherokee so he or she is one eighth Native Indian and counts as Native American too? Nor does it seem fair that an Asian immigrant who also has two non-English speaking parents and who values education and works hard to study every day of his or her life should find it …show more content…
However, such programs can prove costly even to the groups they strive so hard to help. One of these issues with over-application of affirmative action is that it often creates an “academic mismatch”, which “has a variety of negative effects on learning, motivation, and goals that harm the beneficiary of the preference” (Sandler). Because of this mismatch “[the] median black student starting law school… received first-year grades comparable to a white student at the 7th or 8th percentile” (Sandler). Kids that applied and were accepted into the college of their dreams are often shunted to other topics they find less interesting when they are thrown into more competitive environments that cause “dramatic shifts by [minorities] from initial interest in the natural sciences, engineering, and economics to majors in the humanities and social sciences” (Arcidiacono What). No student deserves to be pushed out of a topic they truly love or to be discouraged because they were placed in an environment they were not yet ready for. A UCLA Law School study concludes somewhat counter-intuitively that a “race-blind regime would…produce larger cohorts of [minority] lawyers than the current system of preferences produces” (Sandler). Systems that don’t use affirmative action as a main mean of selection actually have been proven to
Affirmative Action, Adverse Aftermath Race and discrimination are just as commonly discussed, debated, and argued in today’s political scene as they were when John F. Kennedy first introduced affirmative action in the late 1960’s to help enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Affirmative action and other programs that consider race and gender to vet candidates seem to be easily implementable systems that combat still-present biases in today’s society. Why is it then that these programs are just as controversial today …show more content…
However, there are several problems with affirmative action. It would make sense that schools that implement affirmative action would be more balanced. However, “the levels of racial preferences at American law schools are remarkably homogenous across institutions… [in ways that are] hard to distinguish from racially segregated admissions”, implicating that affirmative action may not even change the rate of admissions (Sandler). The majority of the US population also believes that “preferential treatment” should not be used so stringently. In a 2012 poll only 33% of Americans agreed that institutions should take “every possible effort to improve the position of blacks and other minorities, even if it means giving them preferential treatment” (Values). Beyond this, the logic employed by affirmative action is dubious at best. It really doesn’t seem reasonable that a Native American kid who’s parents never had a formal education should gain the same benefits as an American kid who had one great grandparents who was Cherokee so he or she is one eighth Native Indian and counts as Native American too? Nor does it seem fair that an Asian immigrant who also has two non-English speaking parents and who values education and works hard to study every day of his or her life should find it …show more content…
However, such programs can prove costly even to the groups they strive so hard to help. One of these issues with over-application of affirmative action is that it often creates an “academic mismatch”, which “has a variety of negative effects on learning, motivation, and goals that harm the beneficiary of the preference” (Sandler). Because of this mismatch “[the] median black student starting law school… received first-year grades comparable to a white student at the 7th or 8th percentile” (Sandler). Kids that applied and were accepted into the college of their dreams are often shunted to other topics they find less interesting when they are thrown into more competitive environments that cause “dramatic shifts by [minorities] from initial interest in the natural sciences, engineering, and economics to majors in the humanities and social sciences” (Arcidiacono What). No student deserves to be pushed out of a topic they truly love or to be discouraged because they were placed in an environment they were not yet ready for. A UCLA Law School study concludes somewhat counter-intuitively that a “race-blind regime would…produce larger cohorts of [minority] lawyers than the current system of preferences produces” (Sandler). Systems that don’t use affirmative action as a main mean of selection actually have been proven to