Affirmative Action in the workplace
What Is Affirmative Action? "Affirmative Action refers to a range of governmental and private initiative that offer preferential treatment to member of designated racial or ethnic minority groups, usually as a means of compensating them for the effects of past and present discrimination." Due to the oppression of minorities as well as women in the past, programs such as affirmative action were created to provide them with the resources to survive in today's extremely competitive society. How Was Affirmative Action Brought On? America was born on the sheer fact of greater opportunity. Pilgrims came to America because of the discrimination against their religion in England. The irony is that even though the pilgrims created the colonies on greater opportunity, they would not allow people of different religions to reside in their towns. Since the birth of this country, discrimination has taken place. Every group that has immigrated to this country has felt some sort of discrimination. The major difference between blacks and other ethics groups are that, the black race was brought here has a whole. Unwilling to come, these people where dragged from their homes to come to this newly found land and became slaves. When they were freed, there was no where for them to go. As society began to develop, we recognized that all are created equal, therefore, each citizen is entitled to the same opportunities and freedoms. Due to past actions of society, handicaps were given to those at a disadvantage. "You do not take a person who for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line and then say, � you are free to compete with all the others,� and still justly believe that you have been completely fair." (Kahllenburg) Programs such as Affirmative Action were established to provide to the minorities equal opportunity in education and in the workplace. Does affirmative Action allow those to succeed in society by providing equal opportunity without discriminating against those of acceptable qualifications? Pro� and con� of this program are provided, along with one s s student� perception. s Con� s Opponents of affirmative action argue that it is unfair, unjust and unconstitutional. 2. Affirmative action was intended to ensure a principle of equality in our society, but instead we are valuing one person over another. The idea that we have to make "pennance" for slavery is absurd as it is punishing today's generation for yesterday's sins. This is clearly Unamerican, not to mention, a major slap in the face to minorities. We are telling them that they can't compete, that the government has to "help" them become successful. We must treat all men equal under the law, and give NO ONE the upperhand. Let's first examine the first argument for affirmative action. If we examine the founding of this country we can see that the idea was to get rid of the system where your ancestors and their past determined your future. Rather you were to determine your future, no more "monarchy". 2. This idea of "leveling the playing field" so that we have more minorities in power posotions is just plain wrong. The person who is most qualified for the job regardless of
race is the person who should get the job. Ultimately, the law should be color blind and race should not be something even considered. Race politics is something that is played constantly in our country by one party to get votes, instead of us all being Americans. We are all hyphenated Americans. The rule should be, "you must not discriminate on the basis of race" not "you must not discriminate on the basis of race unless it's against a white person." There are three main areas of analyses against affirmative action: Affirmative action deprives those within the majority to advance and succeed; it encourages its supposed beneficiaries to rely on the government as a crutch, and it promotes racial stigma. The first area of analysis is that affirmative action deprives those within the majority to advance and succeed. There are many cases in which a qualified individual is denied a scholarship, or an employment position simply because of their race, sex, and membership in the majority. I am not stating that minorities are less qualified than the majority, but I am implying that we all should be recognized by our merit not our skin color. The second area of analysis is that affirmative action encourages its supposed beneficiaries to rely on the government as a crutch. Even if a minority is well qualified, they would rather use their racial or gender status to ensure a job because they feel it will guarantee them success. This places the employer at a disadvantage in deciding his employees for fear of being prosecuted in the court of law acknowledging the merit of a white male over a Hispanic female. More than likely the woman will get the job. However, you will notice that the majority will accept injustice, but the minority will continue to pursue its acknowledgement, and use affirmative action as a crutch. The third, and final area of analysis is that affirmative action increases racial stigma. As Justin Powell noted "preferential programs may only reinforce common stereotypes that certain groups are unable to achieve success without special protection. This creates doubts about minorities abilities. Racial stigma also occurs within the minority. According to www.law.indiana.com, many Hispanics, and African Americans often feel they have recieved oppurtunities as a result of affirmative action. They often have long withstanding self doubts about their true capabilities. If we stop affirmative action then we can stop racial stigma all together. As a minority (in both gender and race), I personally favor affirmative action. It is a means to give a � head start�to those who would not have had the opportunity in the traditional way. It is not a � hand-out� It is up to the recipient to maintain the position . he/she has been given. It is not certain that my employment in the government was filled based on some sort of quota (I� often wondered); however, I know that I could not ve sustain my employment if I had not proven myself.
The con's or the other side....... "Conservatives argue for a universal approach to admissions - a Social Darwinism approach to admissions - in which differently qualified minority students have only the right to compete with whites based on a universal set of standards."(Takagi,202) It becomes a matter of the survival of the fittest. The most qualified for the position is the on who deserves it. In our competitive society, there are too many people fighting for
survival. When favoritism becomes a factor in the equation, people who are deserving because of work ethics, high achievement, and determination can be eliminated. Another point of view that disagrees with what affirmative action is accomplishing is stated by Anne Matthews, who teaches nonfiction at Princeton University. She wrote a article in the New York Times Magazine in 1993 called , " The Campus Wave". "Only a generation ago, American campuses were tranquil enclaves in both image and fact ... but, since the early 1980's, images has less and less to do with reality.. From as attacks in libraries to shootings at dances, violence on urban, suburban and rural campuses has transformed many schools into discreetly armed camps: electronic passkeys for dormitories, cold - steel mesh on class room windows, computer controlled cameras in stairwells , alarm strips in toilets." ( Browne-miller,86) Between 1975 and 1980 the percentage if enrollment in college decrease for the white population by 1.3 %. The major increase that occurred during 1980 was the black enrollment of 41.8 %. We begin to look more closely at the qualifications of those who are being accepted into "Top" universities through programs such as Affirmative Action. SAT's are a test that challenges the minds of all students and are required by certain colleges in order for admittance. In the year 1991, the average for the black race overall (including all levels of incomes) for the verbal part of the test was 364 as compared to that of the white race of 435, a difference of 71 points. On the math part of the test the blacks had an average score of 397 mad the whites had a average score of 482, a difference of 85 points. " Blacks continue to have lower SAT scores than whites who come from Similar socioeconomic backgrounds." ( Takagi,200)
Can sense be made of this whole thing... Looking at Affirmative Action over all and then reflecting on Rawls theory of "justice as fairness" the question becomes how much longer? The bottom line is we can not ignore those who are in society . Minorities will always exists and have made major contributions in everyone's education. Society in a whole we have a bad past and are trying to make up for it, but is Affirmative action aiding to the potential growth of society? Affirmative Action allowed under privileged and economically challenged to get a head start. When this program was developed, there were good intentions and brought an inactive race (in higher education) back into a more successful standing. When this program began to be threatened or taken away the numbers of minorities enrolling in college began to drop. For example California has rethought this program and has taken the initiative to ban the use of race when deciding on who is admitted into the university's of the state. " Berkeley reported a 57 percent drop in the number of black applicants and a 40 percent decline in the number of Hispanic high school seniors who had been accepted for admission. For UCLA the decline was 43 percent for African American students and 33 percent for Hispanic." ( Holmes, New York Times) Affirmative Action is not meant to give kids who don't deserve to be in college a easy way of being accepted. The original idea was not to take away from those who are qualified, but to give those a chance who are qualified and are discriminated against. Banning this program on campus would result with those who relied on it to learn that the only way to survive in society is through hard work. By eliminating this program the obligation for success as an individual, as a race, and as a country falls on the shoulders of each of us.