Affirmative Action Should Continue Be Eliminated or Modified in Some Way

Should Affirmative Action policies be eliminated?

Affirmative action is an outcome of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, intended to provide equal opportunities

for members of minority groups and women in education and employment. In 1961, President Kennedy was

the first to use the term "affirmative action" in an Executive Order that directed government contractors to

take "affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during

employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." This policy was not fully adopted

until the 1970s.

Affirmative action policies are those in which an institution or organization actively engages in efforts to

improve opportunities for historically excluded groups in American society. Affirmative action policies often

focus on employment and education. In institutions of higher education, affirmative action refers to admission

policies that provide equal access to education for those groups that have been historically excluded or

underrepresented, such as women and minorities. Controversy surrounding the constitutionality of affirmative

action programs has made the topic one of heated debate.

One notable example is a case argued a few years back in the Supreme Court concerning admissions to the

University of Michigan. The school had a policy of rating potential applicants on a point system. Being a

minority student earned you more than twice as many points as achieving a perfect SAT score. Three white

students sued citing this as raced-based discrimination. School officials said that diversity is desirable and

affirmative action is the only way to achieve true diversity. Several other cases involving affirmative action

have followed similar arguments. The two sides of this argument are outlined below.

Yes: Eliminate Affirmative Action

1. Affirmative action leads to reverse discrimination. Affirmative action is designed to end discrimination

and unfair treatment of employees/students based on color, but it in effect does the opposite. Whites who

work harder and/or are more qualified can be passed over strictly because they are white. Contrary to many

stereotypes, many minorities fall into the middle or upper class, and many whites live in poverty.

Unfortunately, the way things are set up now, a poverty-stricken white student who uses discipline and hard

work to become the best he can be can be passed over by a rich minority student who doesn't put in much

effort at all.

2. Affirmative action lowers standards of accountability needed to push students or employees to

perform better. If a minority student can get into Harvard with a 3.2 grade-point average, why should she

push herself to get a 4.0? Although some students or employees are self-motivated, most people need an

extra push or incentive to do their very best. By setting lower standards for admission or hiring, we are

lowering the level of accountability. We should reward hard work, discipline, and achievement; we shouldn't

reward a student simply because he or she is a certain race, nor punish another student simply because he or

she isn't.

3. Students admitted on this basis are often ill-equipped to handle the schools to which they've

been admitted. Imagine a AA minor league baseball player suddenly asked to bat cleanup in the majors, or a

high school science fair contestant suddenly asked to take a rocket scientist job at NASA. There's a possibility

of success in these situations, but it's more likely they will be in over their heads. Schools like Harvard and Yale

have high GPA and SAT requirements because it is extremely difficult to graduate from them. Thus, when

they're forced to lower standards to achieve a minority quota, some students can't keep up. This isn't to say

these students are less capable, but chances are that if they can't meet minimum requirements, they probably

aren't ready to go there. The lower graduation rate of minorities is testament to the fact that they are too

often going to schools that don't match their need or ability. The original application criteria of schools were

put in for a reason. We should adhere to them.

4. It would help lead a truly color-blind society. When you apply for a job or fill out a college application,

how often are asked about things like your hair color, eye color, or height? Unless it's for a modeling or athletic

position, probably never. Why? It's because hair & eye color or height don't have any effect on your ability to

do a job or succeed at a school. There's no association between hair/eye color and intelligence, discipline,

ambition, character, or other essentials. Thus, it's useless to even ask about the information. Conversely,

there's no association between skin color and intelligence/discipline/etc. So why do we keep drawing attention

to it? Wouldn't it be great if we one day lived in a society when skin color was ignored as much as hair & eye

color?

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Source: https://docslib.org/doc/8838680/should-affirmative-action-policies-be-eliminated

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