Affirmative action, as supposedly an answer to racial inequality, is a term first introduced by President John Kennedy which refers to redressing the social discrimination. President Johnson developed it and first enforced. "This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights," Johnson said.
"We seek… not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result (Brunner Affirmative Action History). ”This is a response to the article of James McPherson entitled Deconstructing Affirmative Action which was published in the online journal of the American Historical Association, Perspectives, on April 2003. James McPherson said that if one looks at a longer perspective of time as historians do, there is more than one side of this affirmative action puzzle. Which, I definitely agree. The purpose of this essay is to help us see the argument that we should look at both sides which the affirmative action should also be covering.In the end, I would like us to realize that affirmative action must really ensure that blacks and other minorities will experience equal opportunities in jobs and education as what the white men experience – not one edging the other in opportunities or the other benefited more.
The old form of affirmative action favors more of the whites – whites being accepted to jobs without experiencing the hardships of applications, being promoted and dominating the top positions, being prioritize in student admissions and the likes.One of the evidences of these is James McPherson’s situation he offered himself as a case study. He was born into a middle class family and his parents send all their children into college. During that time, female were encouraged to take school teaching, marriage or nursing as their career.
On the other hand, male were encourage to dwell on professional jobs such as business, lawyers or doctors. But these are for white men only. Minorities and women are discouraged and prohibited to do the same.Given this situation of the older form of affirmative action, McPherson benefited a lot from getting the proper education, up to graduating and getting the job. Now, it has turned into the other way around – blacks, Native Americans, and Latino/Latina receiving bonus points in the admission in University of Michigan as stated in McPherson’s article.
McPherson said they have supported the efforts for they want to broaden and diversity the racial, gender and ethnic composition of their classes and even their faculty.But then there were whites who believed that they were not admitted in the law school or even undergraduate because less qualified minority applicants were accommodated. “The consequences of the older kind of affirmative action have not yet been neutralized by the newer version,” McPherson said. He further said that the old form’s injustices were greater than those of the new, much worse as it seems (McPherson Deconstructing Affirmative Action). The evidences presented explain what I have said at the first part of this article -- that affirmative action is supposedly an answer to racial inequality.But what is happening is that it is just getting worse, bringing more injustices and inequality among the whites and plaintiffs, as McPherson refers to them.
In believing so, affirmative action should not be playing at giving extra or special attention to minorities, blacks, and natives who were treated “unfairly” in the past. But they should be balancing the treatment between whites and these unprivileged people. This is through giving and providing equal opportunities, equal chances, and unbiased judgment especially in education and jobs -- neutralizing the old form.The older form of affirmative has cause injustices.
The new form is approaching the same way. That these black and minorities will finally found their way into “ruling” over the whites. But these should not happen. And these will not happen if affirmative action will be on the right path of its goal to remedy the social inequality and discrimination. I hope that by now we realize that affirmative action must really ensure that blacks and other minorities will experience equal opportunities in jobs and education as what the white men experience.
It should not favor one more than the other in the two separated groups. Now we know the arguments of the two sides of affirmative action – the old and new. And I hope we realized also that it should be neutral and equal. We are all humans.
We are all citizens of this same country. We are all under the same government. Furthermore, we must experience equal opportunities, equal chances. These sides are contradicting each other.
Affirmative action has good principle, but should not have bittersweet practiced.Works Citedhttp://www.infoplease.com/spot/affirmative1.html
