Affermative Action

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action efforts were started in 1964 to end the long history of

overlooking qualified people of color and women from higher education. Affirmative

Action sets standards for a business or office of admissions, so that a white man does not

have the upper-hand over an equally or greater educated minority. The initial way the

government tried to justify Affirmative Action was to develop a human resource

approach: first identifying the problem, which is racism then establishing the solution

(Phillips 67).

The intent of Affirmative Action helps cut down discrimination in the work place

and in schools, despite the fact that some believe that affirmative action is a form of

reverse discrimination. In contrast, the first goal of Affirmative Action was to help

people who were poor or badly educated, elevating them to positions for which they were

not objectively qualified (Buckley 95). Cousens, author of Public Civil Rights Agencies

and Fair Employment indicates that the Affirmative Action techniques have the

advantage of not only persuading employers not to discriminate when hiring or accepting,

but to expand employment and educational opportunities for minority groups (22).

Therefore, Affirmative Action is legitimate because it does reduce discrimination in the

work place and related areas such as University acceptance of college students. In the

end, it should in no way be abolished.

However, Affirmative action is highly controversial. Right now Proposition 209,

in California which bans all programs involving race and sex preferences run by the state,

has passed but it will not be put into total action due to some questions of

constitutionality (Ayres 34). The law will start slowly first, ending Affirmative Action in

the schools of California, leading up to the abolishment of Affirmative Action all

together. An argument was declared by Mark Rosenbaum of the Southern California

Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, “ Proposition 209 should be

declared unconstitutional because it singles out women and minorities and, at a time

when discrimination still exists, sought to preclude them from attaining constitutionally

guaranteed right, like jobs and schooling.” (Ayres 34). As Rosenbaum pointed out,

discrimination does still exist in our not so perfect world, and so far Affirmative Action is

our only solution; so why is California trying so hard to put an end to it? Abolishing

Affirmative Action is not the answer. President Clinton spoke out in his speech for

National Archives: “ Let me be clear: Affirmative Action has been good for America, we

should have a simple slogan: Mend it, but don’t bend it”(Benac). Without even trying to

change the way Affirmative Action is implemented, California is ending it first. This will

prove detrimental to Californian society because it will cause more racial problems.

The problem with the Affirmative Action debate could be that those arguing for it

do a poor job defending their position. Due to the fact that Affirmative Action has been

in place for more than a generation, critics have lost sight of how the job market and

higher education looks without Affirmative Actions stabilizing effects. Yet critics think

that Affirmative Action is a cleverly disguised form of racism and ineffective, but taking

a look at what happens when there is no Affirmative