In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the executive order that mandated policies, based on affirmative action, to counter the effects of past discrimination. This action affected primarily employers and businesses that provided tuition aid for individuals wishing to attend a college or university. After this landmark decision, affirmative action continued to grow and soon became a factor in deciding eligibility for higher education. As a result of these major policy changes over the years, the United States has experienced a significant rise in diversity in the classroom and work place. More importantly, it has opened a number of doors to minorities that lack the experience and paper credentials to apply to an employer or college. The …show more content…
One of the major arguments is reverse discrimination against majority groups. By offering employment and educational opportunities specifically for minority groups, many have argued that it eliminates the principle of meritocracy in our society. On the subject of opportunity, another opinion is that affirmative action is no longer needed and that the U.S. has developed a number of opportunities for every American to succeed. For example, unlike a number of countries, the U.S. military offers government tuition assistance to people that enlist and more if an individual enlists in certain states that have established a National Guard. Alongside tuition assistance from the military, the development of education through technology has opened a door to individuals who cannot afford to attend major state educational institutes. This means individuals who are in no financial position to attain an education can do so through online schooling that affordable and collaborates with outside factors that may affect an individual’s ability to continue their education. Finally, others debate that affirmative action, itself, creates a stereotype for minorities and contradicts the very principle it was set to eliminate. Whereas affirmative action has assisted minorities when our country was once very open about discrimination, by helping them establish policies to combat
Katznelson’s argument that affirmative action policies were enacted with purposeful, deliberate discrimination is convincing. Namely, he considers the historical context that would have shaped Americans at the time and swayed their opinions. For example, Katznelson references the Civil War and the end of slavery, and how these events shaped the attitudes of key players like the Southern Democrats, which would then result in the faulty policies that perpetuated affirmative action’s favoritism of whites. His evidence is sufficient as well. Katznelson highlights the trend of Southern Democrats interfering in affirmative action policies and the footholds they had in specific acts.
Affirmative action in his eyes not only discriminated against non-minority, but also gave way for failure due to the lack of proper schooling before post-secondary institutions for minorities. The term minority student means that students were disadvantaged and were underrepresented in America. Richard argues that the people who affirmative action was designed for were not benefiting because affirmative action was not
Thus, often without realizing it, the United States has practiced what, in effect, was white affirmative action on a highly generous and widespread basis, followed by a much more modest program of black affirmative action. By understanding this history, we can come to terms with the widening gap between blacks and whites noted by Lyndon Johnson and with the incapacity of many blacks to be able to make good this gap in the following four decades (Katznelson,
Is affirmative action still necessary for guaranteeing equal access to educational opportunities at elite universities and graduate schools? Should admissions decisions be based solely on academic criteria and merit? Key Words: affirmative action, Grutter V. Bollinger, and diversity. Grutter V. Bollinger Research Paper 3 Affirmative Action in Education Affirmative action was formed more than fifty years ago.
This particular quota system would disable student compatibility, increase grade inflation, and destroy the integrity of higher education itself. The best alternative would be to have a colorblind system created by based solely on enterprise and merit. Affirmative action programs state the of poverty as a main factor individual's educational progress. Thus occurring, students coming from financially stable backgrounds are more likely to have a thought in admission acceptance. Brown v. Board of Education engraved its way for significant opportunities in our society for both non-colored people and minorities by pursuing
We are in need of a Brown v. Board of Education for higher education, meaning a federal policy of desegregation that would ensure students that not just some options in the public system exist regardless of race, but that access to the entire system is available regardless of race. They need to see that the system as a whole is not divided into levels based on social status, education, or income (Steinbaum, 2017). This would help to reduce inequality within American higher education. In this era of credentialization (when employers raise the educational requirements for a given job) we cannot stop until all students have full access to an equal education (Steinbaum,
Perhaps one way of defining and understanding the concept of white male privilege is to imagine that a white male walks through life with an invisible duffle bag full of unearned rights and privileges that a white male alone enjoys. These privileges are said to exist as these white males have something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, versus anything, in particular, they have either failed to do or have actually done. Because other groups do not walk through life with this invisible duffle bag full of unearned rights and privileges, Affirmative Action policies were initiated to provide those without an invisible duffle bag, a visible one; thus, allowing all to walk through life equally. In regards
These allies also see Affirmative action as a way to compensate and repay minorities for the decades upon decades of slavery and oppression, two hundred forty-five years to be exact. Supporters place the argument that labels are made to identify cultural strengths or obstacles that and that minority status is a framework for the interpretation or determination of what constitutes achievement (Butler
Weak affirmative action which is just an effort to ensure that all qualified minority groups are considered whereas the strong one is when some sort of preference is given to the minority candidate. Later the author concludes that he will focus on the strong affirmative action because it is the most controversial one. Then the author gives us many arguments of different people and critics for and against affirmative action. Later on, David Boonin gives us his own arguments in favor of affirmative action which are 1) the unfair disadvantage argument; 2) the (other) compensation argument; 3) the appeal to diversity; 4) the need for role models; 5) the bias-elimination argument; 6) race as a qualification. “I conclude that while affirmative action may prove to have some desirable features and some beneficial consequences, there’s no reason to believe that it’s morally obligatory.
Throughout history we have seen many forms of educational discrimination and inequality between minority students and white students. Throughout the 1950s and 60s most minority students in the United States faced discrimination and inequality especially African Americans and the hispanics. Most of these African Americans and hispanics attended segregated schools in the 1950s and 60s because they were not allowed to be in school with white students. In 1954 the supreme court case Brown v. Board of Education it was decided that segregated schools are unconstitutional and it violated the 14th Amendment. Today the school experiences of African Americans and other minority students in the United States continue to be substantially
Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973). Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing