¶ … affirmative action is still an important factor in the sociopolitical makeup of the United States. This policy has radically changed employment and school admission policies around the county. To eliminate affirmative action at this point in time would have an adverse affect on women and minorities across the country.
Affirmative action works. A study done by the U.S. Labor Department indicates that affirmative action has been responsible for a positive move in the workforce for five million minorities and six million white women.
As the preceding paragraph states, progress has been made. However, women still make seventy-six cents for every male dollar earned and African-Americans continue to have twice the unemployment rate of white people.
One of the primary myths about affirmative action is that it has a negative effect on the white workforce. This is not true. In Ten Myths about Affirmative Action, Scott Plous writes, "according to the U.S. Commerce Department, there are 1.3 million unemployed Black civilians and 112 million employed White civilians. Thus even if every unemployed Black were in the United States were to displace a White worker, only 1% of Whites would be affected. Furthermore, affirmative action pertains only to job-qualified applicants, so the actual percentage of affected Whites would be a fraction of 1%."
In the year 2003, affirmative action is just as important as it was thirty years ago. There is still a great deal of injustice revolving around this particular issue. Companies and schools should continue employment and admissions standards which are based on affirmative action policies. The world is not yet colorblind enough to ignore racial differences in these fields. As a result, affirmative action should continue until which point, people are able to look at the content of one's character instead of the color of one's skin.
Bibliography
Plous, Scott. "Ten Myths about Affirmative Action." Journal of Social Issues. 1996. Vol. 52. Pgs. 25-31. http://www.understandingprejudice.org/readroom/articles/affirm.htm
Preventing Discrimination and Promoting Diversity." In Motion Magazine. 2003. http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/idaa/ahawkins.html
Unfortunately, at least according to the literature researched here, these are neither sufficiently addressed nor remedied, in most cases, by affirmative action alone at the post-secondary level. Works Cited Bowen, William G., and Bok, Derrick. The Shape of the River: Long-term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998. Comer, J. And Poussaint, Alvin. Black Child Care. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975. Constitution of the United
Affirmative Action is an extremely important concept since it is vital to the operation of America as a democracy. It reinforces the affirmation of the Constitution that all people are born equal and should, therefore, be given an equal chance to prove themselves. Employment opportunity (and other factors) should be based on merit rather than on extraneous factors such as skin color, race, gender, physiology, and so forth. The Federal Register
This is a particular problem at the nation's colleges and universities. This has become so much of an issue that law suits and verdicts have been handed down in some states. One of the most famous cases to date involved the University of Michigan's undergraduate and law school policies. These cases are Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger. In 1997, Jennifer Gratz, a white woman, sued the University of
367) According to Sander, none of these questions have been asked effectively and therefore we as a nation continue to believe that affirmative action is a necessary social development for the creation of a more representative society, where disenfranchisement must be answered by active plans, policies and laws. Few of us would enthusiastically support preferential admission policies if we did not believe they played a powerful, irreplaceable role in giving nonwhites
Furthermore, it is also believed that the evolution of American society is at a point where all forms of discrimination can be done away with. Dworkin therefore appears to advocate a simple acceptance of all affirmative action programs in terms of their original intention; to redress the collectivist wrongs perpetrated against a collective sector of society, by another collective. In this, those belonging to the historically repressive collective should,
Affirmative Action - Should Race be a Factor in Deciding College Admissions? Should race be a deciding factor for college admissions? The debate is one that is hotly contested among students and administrators alike. Many feel that in a tight job market acquiring a college educational is an essential prerequisite for career advancement (Worsnop, 1996) thus competition for admission to many of the nation's best universities is increasing. In addition tuition expenses
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