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Affirmative Action Just About Everyone Has Heard Term Paper

¶ … Affirmative Action? Just about everyone has heard of affirmative action these days, but just what is it, really? Is it something only minorities really benefit from? Is it really as controversial as some people seem to think? Affirmative action is a term people use, but what it really means can be very misleading.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines affirmative action as "positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded" ("Affirmative Action"). "Positive steps" can mean many things, but here, they are meant to mean that women and minorities should enjoy the same rights and opportunities that anyone else in this country enjoys. It sounds simple, and it was meant to be simple, but the entire idea of affirmative action has become very controversial.

Affirmative action was not a widely used term until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed into legislation. The term was associated with the Act, but still was not very common. It really...

The Stanford Encyclopedia continues, "Affirmative action, if it did not impose preferences outright, at least countenanced them" ("Affirmative Action"). Therefore, affirmative action became increasingly controversial and disliked by many people.
Results, Effects, and Uses: Discuss the consequences and uses of the subject.

That did not stop affirmative action from gaining ground across the country. It was the law, and it was commonly used for educational admissions, employee hiring, and even guaranteeing that…

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References

"Affirmative Action." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 4 March 2005. 14. Oct. 2005.

< http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/affirmative-action / >
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