Example For High School about Affirmative Action

Affirmative action and other race-conscious remedies were created to erase the differences in rights and opportunities defined by that color line.

National anxiety about affirmative action has never been higher. That is saying a lot, considering how controversial affirmative action has been since it was introduced twenty-five years ago.The controversy starts with the identification of affirmative action with jobs, prime but elusive possessions in our market economy. Whether it raises hopes or anxiety, to the average American of every background, affirmative action means jobs. Employment, more than other areas, has given definition to affirmative action.

The term was first applied to employment and for years applied only to job discrimination. Although variations are used in education, government contracting, and voting rights, affirmative action and jobs go together in the public mind.Because there have never been enough jobs to go around, affirmative action has had a precarious existence, even as it became increasingly widespread. Although strong national leadership and crafty legal action may well save it, affirmative action will always have to watch its proverbial back.“The aim of affirmative action is to remove these unwarranted self-imposed limitations on career aspirations: to expand people's sense of what is possible for them, so that they can subject the full range of options to the kind of individualized scrutiny that is appropriate to career decisions and goals” (Stroud 385). Affirmative action is without a doubt necessary.

Such actions are important to reduce the act of discrimination that is prevalent in our society today. “Employment discrimination experts agree that antidiscrimination laws such as the Civil Rights Act encourage, and in many instances require, affirmative action” (Forman 746).Affirmative action is necessary and people from the minorities should be brought up to higher ranks and highly paid jobs rather than left concentrated at lower paid jobs.Opportunity should be given to them so that they can excel and make their living standards better.

Equal opportunity should be present for all the races in the United States. Moreover, gender discrimination should also be subtracted and men and women should have equal job opportunities.Affirmative action is being taken by many nations of the world because they realize its importance. “India, for example, has undertaken affirmative action initiatives in regard to disfavored castes that are both older and more extensive than any program ventured in the United States” (Ginsburg 2).Its 1950 constitution boldly affirms affirmative action because it realizes that equal opportunity should be presented to all the castes and races in India.There is opposition towards affirmative action and they suggest that it is pointless and useless.

However, they fail to realize that “affirmative action works rather well, at least in the context of employment” (Buford Jr., 1998).The courts themselves favor affirmative action and such is seen by a ruling by a federal district court in San Francisco which brought great changes and for the first time in the history of the fire department’s history, women were admitted as firefighters.“A federal district court review of the San Francisco Fire Department in 1987 led to a consent decree that increased the number of African Americans in officer positions from 7 to 31; Hispanic officers increased from 12 to 55 and Asians from 0 to 10” (Shelton, 1998).

In view of such positive decisions by the court it is most likely that the Law Enforcement Association would find no support from the courts of law.If black males and women were helped by affirmative action, white males, often having superior qualifications, were directly harmed by it. Paradoxically, many black people, too, suffered harms as many white people began to automatically assume that any black person in a position of prestige had not earned his or her position, but had merely been awarded it in an affirmative action program.Affirmative action programs also come with the cost of seeming to force us to violate our deeply held ideals in order to satisfy those same ideals. Affirmative action programs seek to create a society in which people were not barred from opportunities because of their color or gender.

To do this, however, many programs were put in place in which people with superior qualifications were disqualified from certain positions because of their color or gender. Such dissonance has been too much for many people to live comfortably with.If we really want to help black people, a large percentage of whom are poor, the most effective way to do so is with a race-neutral affirmative action. Vigorous affirmative action could be pursued here to make sure blacks were able to have equal access to quality education and training.

There are a number of costs and benefits to affirmative action, or for any other way of aiding the downtrodden in our society. Blacks have been wronged and severely harmed by whites.Therefore white society should compensate blacks for the injury caused them. Reverse discrimination in terms of preferential hiring, contracts, and scholarships is a fitting way to compensate for the past wrongs. White males as innocent beneficiaries of unjust discrimination of blacks and women have no grounds for complaint when society seeks to rectify the tilted field.

White males may be innocent of oppressing blacks and minorities (and women), but they have unjustly benefited from that oppression or discrimination. So it is perfectly proper that less qualified women and blacks be hired before them. The operative principle is: He who knowingly and willingly benefits from a wrong must help pay for the wrong.It is important that we learn to live in a pluralistic world, learning to get along with those of other races and cultures, so we should have fully integrated schools and employment situations. Diversity is an important symbol and educative device.

U.S. society is rapidly becoming multicultural, and, therefore, its citizens and future leaders must be prepared to understand and appreciate the contributions and values of different ethnic groups. The census data on the racial composition of the population indicate that if the present trend of growth continues, whites who composed 73.6 percent of the population in 1995 will constitute only 52.5 percent of the population by the year 2050.

It is entirely appropriate that universities welcome qualified students of all races and ethnicities to prepare them for productive roles in our highly dynamic and competitive society. Given the population changes in this country, and the globalization of commerce and technology, it is imperative that students as well as educators and policymakers pay greater attention to the histories, institutions, belief systems, values, and norms of different cultures.This is particularly so in the case of those cultures that has hitherto received inadequate attention and recognition. The roles and contributions of women in various disciplines and their endeavors at family, community, national, and international levels must also be acknowledged and included in academic curricula and must be subjects of scientific inquiries.The inclusion of these subjects or topics in college curricula and academic life, however, should not mean the suspension of critical objective judgment about the qualities and values of an ethnic community, a culture, or a society.

However, understanding a culture does not, and should not, mean its uncritical glorification.Thus preferential treatment is warranted to perform this role in society. After agonizing for a few months on what position to take on affirmative action preferences, President Clinton, in a speech on July 19, 1995, at the National Archives, strongly supported the continuous use of affirmative action by declaring, “We should have a simple slogan: ‘Mend it, but don't end it’” (Freedberg A1).Leaders of minority groups, such as the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials, applauded the President's commitment to affirmative action. While strongly supporting affirmative action in general, the President ordered a review to abolish or revise those programs that are abused or poorly administered.Affirmative action is for the betterment of the society in today’s world.

The Black population did suffer a lot in the past and they should be compensated for today.The institution should have diversity within them. Many a times even the courts have spoken in support of affirmative action which only makes the advocates of affirmative action in a comparatively stronger position. There is no doubt that opting for affirmative action would improve the society in general and prove to be beneficial.WORKS CITED(1) Stroud, Sarah. “The Aim of Affirmative Action.

” Social Theory and Practice 25.3 (1999): 385.(2) Forman, J. Jr. “Saving affirmative action.

” The Nation 253.20 (1991): 746.(3) Ginsburg, R. “Affirmative action as an international human rights dialogue.” Brookings Review 18.

1 (2000): 2.(4) Buford Jr., J. A.

“Affirmative action works.” Commonweal 125.12 (1998): 12.(5) Shelton, H. O.

“Affirmative action: it's still needed.” World and I 13.6 (1998): 28.(6) Freedberg, Louis.

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