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Affirmative Action Affirmative Action: the definition Affirmative action is a complex of positive measures (including public policies and initiatives) directed to liquidate discrimination by allocating jobs and resources to members of certain social groups, such as minorities and women. According to this civil rights program, the past and present discrimination can be based on different social features, such as color, sex (women at work), nationality, race, religion, etc. The Supreme Court has considered the constitutionality of affirmative action in a number of cases involving such issues as admission to educational institutions, job hiring and promotion, exemption from ordinary seniority-bound job-layoff rules, award of public building contracts, and award of licenses for radio and television stations by the Federal Communications Commission. (Levinson 1) In such a way, Affirmative action is the policy of equal opportunities. Excuses in history Lets dwell on the maid preconditions resulted in idea of Affirmative Action. Historically, governmental programs were aimed to help the minorities (mainly to African-Americans) to enjoy inherent rights of the U.
S. citizens. According to the Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, slavery was proclaimed illegal.
The Fourteenth Amendment specified that ever citizen of the United States has right for equal protection. The Fifteenth Amendment to Constitution provided the minorities with right to vote. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 specified that the U. S. minorities have the same rights as white American citizens. The Supreme Court Decision of 1896 in Please vs.
Ferguson stipulated the doctrine of equality for the minorities. A little bit later, in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt adopted and signed Executive Order 8802. In 1953 President Harry S. Truman's Committee on Government Contract Compliance gave legal instructions to the Bureau of Employment Security to make all effort to eliminate the discrimination based on different social factors. These were the first steps towards the policy of Affirmative Action.
The policy of Affirmative action (as well as the definition affirmative action) was brought into life in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson in Executive Order 11246. Originally it was aimed to give (the immigrants from Latin America and Native Americans Indians, Polynesians, Eskimos, etc) equal opportunities in education and employment to African Americans and other minorities. Such practice was applied to women and invalids as well. It was formulated in the Equal Employment Opportunities Act. Later it was confirmed in Titles II and VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In accordance with the United States Census Bureau, 211 mln Americans have white color of skin and approximately 10 million are Asians. The policy of equal opportunities protects rights of 35 mln African Americans, Latin Americans and approximately 2. 800. 000 of Native Americans. They have fringe benefits when they enter educational establishments (institutes, universities, colleges, etc). European Union had started to use the same policy in 1997, when it created the programs of support of womens employment.
According to information of Labor Department, this policy allowed to get a good job to more than 5 million representatives of racial and nation minorities and 6 million women. Yet, the policy of Affirmative Actions was accompanied by numerous scandals. The society divided into two groups: one group supports the policy of Affirmative Action, whereas the other social group is against it. The opponents of Affirmative Action are mainly based on the ideas of reverse discrimination and unwarranted preferences.
Bakke case of 1978 The Supreme Court of the United States has made a precedent court decision, publishing verdict that white student was discriminated. We speak about the famous Bakke case of 1978. In particular, a white student, Alan Bakke had been rejected by medical school because his place was promised to less qualified representative of racial minorities due to their special admissions policy (16 places out of 100 were reserved in this school in accordance with Affirmative Actions). Bakke had been rejected by the medical school twice, even though he had a higher grade point average than a number of minority candidates who were admitted. As a result of the decision, Bakke was admitted to the medical school and graduated in 1992. (Infoplease Website n.
p. ). Alan Bakke stated that he was a victim of so-called reverse discrimination that disallows the whites having the same opportunities as the minorities. However, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of affirmative action per se In 1986 the Supreme Court approved decision of company management that fired all white workers while keeping black workers at their working places. During the last years the attitude of American towards the policy of Affirmative Action has changed a lot. California and Washington have already cancelled such fringe benefits.
Critics of this policy consider that Affirmative Action policy opens the doors for African Americans, but close them for whites. Besides, a lot of religious and racial minorities (for example, Jews and Asians) dont have right to use these advantages. Opponents consider that Asians, Europeans and Jews have immigrated to the United States by their own will and lots of immigrants have got good education in their countries of origin. African Americans came to the United States in the vessels of slave-owners. The historian Roger Wilkins wrote that African Americans have been living on the territory of America for 375 years. They have been slaves for more than 100 years.
Only 30 years they are free. The majority of Americans support Wilkins point of view: more than 60 % of Americans consider it necessary to use the policy of Affirmative Action. The cases of the University of Michigan were next important ruling concerning the Affirmative Action. The Supreme Court decisively confirmed the policy of affirmative action in higher education.
President Bush said in his speech that the position of Affirmative Action policy wasnt correct in some definite cases. In particular, he noticed that the majority of so-called minorities, such as Native American students, African Americas and Hispanic students at the undergraduate level receive twenty points out of 150 not because they are talented or have considerable academic success or life experience but merely because they belong to minorities (Native American, African American or Hispanic). Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom considered that it was not correct to encourage the racial minorities by additional points at SAT. They explained that under-prepared African Americans are not able complying with requests of the University. In such a way, they were thrown into academic environments where they cannot compete. (Thernstrom 395 - 411) The cases of the Michigan University proved that the policy of Affirmative Action resulted in a compelling state interest in diversity at all social levels. At the same time, the policy was no longed needed only due t the reason it was a way of eliminating the past injustice and / or discrimination in relation to the minorities.
Affirmative Action: pros and cons The policy of Affirmative Action influences different groups of minority states population, e. g. the young and the adult, men and women. The Affirmative Action has raised heated debates in the society. The society has divided in two groups: one group supports it and the other is strongly against it. We will investigate both opinions.
Now, lets examine some arguments often used by the supporters and opponents of the policy of Affirmative Action. The supporters of Affirmative Action often claim that such policy is the only way to liquidate discrimination based on racial and / or gender factors. However, the opponents of policy argue that the policy itself often gives negative results because it often puts the Affirmative Action beneficiaries into primarily discriminatory conditions. In such a way, the policy will not only be unable to eliminate the racial discrimination of minorities, but, on the contrary, will deepen the gap between them and will reinforce racial injustice. Do women of color double-dip? The opponents of Affirmative Action often bring this fact as evidence and a frequently cited instance.
Lots of Americans are sure that if a woman is a woman of color, she benefits from her double outsider status. In such a way, when the employer or educational institution prefers the minorities and / or women, they commit the reverse discrimination that violates doctrine of equal rights and opportunities for every U. S. citizen irregardless of his race, color of skin, sex, religion, etc. What about the supporters of Affirmative Action?
They say that practice of reverse discrimination (especially for women of color) is simply incomprehensible and incomprehensible. Despite the common opinion, the combination of being a representative of minorities of color and a woman is a double negative factor in the legal marketplace. Besides, the geographic region and the type of job / employment possibility or the type of practice do not play important role in making decision. Some of the opponents of Affirmative Action claim that this policy disregards merit for women of color and argue that Affirmative Action is justified only after a perpetrator-victim model.
This perpetrator-victim model supposes that there should be a victim and a perpetrator. Such correcting model of justice can be used to equalize the sides. Yet, one of the ideas is that affirmative action beneficiaries are undeservedly preferred to more deserving persons due to some ungrounded claims of discrimination. The supporters of Affirmative action often argue that Affirmative Action beneficiaries are stigmatized The opposing group considers such position to be wrong: there is no evidence that all beneficiaries of affirmative action are stigmatized. Not all of them have self-doubt and low esteem and even if they do, it can result from their childhood or their social conditions that dont have much in common with their ethical origin or belonging to minority. Next argument presented by the opponents of Affirmative Action policy is that Affirmative action disregards low-income persons.
As it is disputed by supporters of policy, the common opinion is that only people with middle income can benefit from Affirmative action. However, it is not correct because even if many affirmative action beneficiaries are from the families with low income or from the middle-class families, that is not the correct case at the dawn of affirmative action. There is no general opinion on whether the minorities will gain or lose from the policy of Affirmative action. Affirmative action is very important for protecting minorities from all kinds of discrimination and, any changes leading to unfavorable results will greatly influence them. Those who back up the policy believe that minorities will gain from it. And again those who oppose Affirmative action think that the minorities and the white Americans can seriously suffer from it both directly and indirectly.
Conclusion In conclusion I want to tell that dwelling on the subject of Affirmative Action is extremely difficult because it always stirs up a lot of emotions, both positive and negative. The policy of Affirmative Action is a subject of heated debates because it involves not only the minority set-asides. It was primarily created as a program providing benefits to millions of American minorities. No doubt that every state and every country bears responsibility for its citizens. Implementation of various social and political programs is the way to help people who need state support. In every country there is more or less developed social system and it is the countrys duty to make governmental system efficient and effective.
However, I consider that it cannot be a policy of equal opportunities because, although it is created to assure equal rights and to provide all people irregardless of their origin, race and gender with equal rights and opportunities, it actually makes some people more equal than others. The policy implies creating inequality to make everybody equal. In the field of government system it will lead to the situation when many social problems based on diverse discrimination occur. According to one sources it can happen in several years, according to the other in several dozens of years. But anyway it is going to happen.
This is a governmental and constitutional paradox and an important problem the government faces now. The idea of Affirmative Action has been facing a decline for several reasons. It is evident that it needs to be reformed, as the treatment of minorities and fringe benefits given to them solely because of their belonging to certain race, religion or gender and other measures of this kind are not sufficient and cant be solution to the problem. When carrying out the Affirmative Action the interests of all people must be taken into consideration. The Affirmative Action should be also sufficient, that is, it must be changed to become a real solution to the problem and not lead to the social problems in future years. Personally Im against the Affirmative action because I think race shouldnt be an issue you can get the job on merit.
It is natural that all citizens of our country should have equal opportunities and rights according to Constitution of the United States of America. The companies should use equal criteria for employment of staff. In particular, I consider the race line on applications unnecessary, because it causes reverse discrimination. Bibliography: Infoplease Website.
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Retrieved November 8, 2005. < web > Levinson, S. Affirmative Action.
Retrieved November 8, 2005. , http: // college. ho. com / history /readers comp/ read / html /ah 001500 affirmative. htm> Thernstrom, S. (1997). America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible.
Simon and Schuster: New York
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