" (Fernandez, 1) This has helped to redirect the perspective on Affirmative Action within the profession, where institutions are beginning to espouse it as a legitimate means to balancing merit and racial fairness in both the admission of students and the courtship and hiring of teachers. A recent Supreme Court decision on student admission to the University of Michigan reflected this stance, offering real and applicable precedent that today reverberates in the collective movement to improve conditions for an ethnically diverse range of Americans.
In 2000, Gratz v Bollinger began the long process of defending the Constitutionality of Affirmative Action as a factor in shaping admission criteria for potential students. Under the premise that ethnic diversity could be considered a suitable goal for a university in selecting the members of its student body, a federal court found in favor of the University's reliance upon the practice. After being nullified the following year by a contrary decision in Grutter v Bollinger, then subsequently overturned once again on appeal, the University's policy was ultimately vindicated in the United States Supreme Court. In a landmark 5-4 decision, the highest court upheld "the University of Michigan Law School's policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors considered by colleges when selecting their students because it furthers 'a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.'" (Brunner, 1)
The Achievement Gap for African-American Men
The knowledge and skill acquired through formal business school educational courses may play a vital role in helping individuals develop realistic and achievable career advances. The study provided by Sui-Chu & Willms points to the achievement gap which stands as the theoretical basis for our research. This is because the study makes a direct connection between this gap and a factor which largely enters into all other discussions on the subject. According to the study, "perhaps the most enduring finding in the sociology of education is that schooling outcomes are related to the socioeconomic status of the children's parents." (Sui-Chu & Willms, 126) This is to suggest that this root factor should be a present consideration as we enter into a greater consideration of the racial implications of the achievement gap. Indeed, most of these racial implications are in some way connected to the correlations between socioeconomic status and race, validating efforts at using these correlations to adapt a strategy for change.
The study by Hedges & Nowell provides us with some empirical confirmation that there is an observable achievement gap between whites and other ethnic groups that can be demonstrated though academic testing. Proficiency monitoring shows a clear imbalance where those at the top of testing indices are concerned. As the Hedges & Nowell study reports, "about a third of the gap in test scores is accounted for by racial differences in social class, and although this gap appears to have narrowed since 1965, the rate at which it is narrowing seems to have decreased since 1972. The two groups are becoming more equal at the bottom of the test-score distribution, but at the top, blacks are hugely underrepresented and are approaching parity with whites slowly, if at all." (Hedges & Nowell, 111) This provides us with an indication that even with some sociological improvement, there has been considerable difficulty in providing minorities with the avenues to improvement that might facilitate their more equal representation at the higher ends of the scorings spectrum, suggesting an ongoing need for affirmative action programs.
Formal employment of African-American MBA Graduates
Regarding the professional environment, African-American students who attend graduate schools are more likely to receive promotions and career advancement when compared to other races (GAO, 2005, p.3). This is mainly attributable to affirmative action because although organizations hire African-American MBA graduates increasingly, they still constitute a small percentage of the total workforce in managerial positions (Pager et al. 2009, p.5). Consequently, in certain circumstances, some organizations just cooperate with set quotas, which specify particular numbers of qualified minority members that must fill in vacant positions. "For example, a university with a high proportion of Caucasian male faculty maybe required to fill half of its faculty vacancies with women and other minorities" (Chima & Wharton, 1999, p.6).
Organizations are deliberately reorganizing their internal mechanisms to facilitate affirmative action. Numerous organizations are proactively progressing to ensure the facilitation of affirmative action. Many organizations are committed to ensuring that African-Americans MBAs have sufficient representation in managerial and senior posts. According to Austin (2008), African-American men with graduate degrees...
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
Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity The policies of affirmative action aiming at assisting the black Americans are of recent origin. The policies have sought its origin to varied sources like legal structure, executive instructions, and court rulings. It was during the last three decades that these policies were being developed and they have become debatable as well. (Legal History) During the last three decades of the nineteenth century, a large number of African-Americans
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
S. Army is recruited from minority groups and they undergo rigorous training to match high standards. (Rushefsky, 2002) Further various universities in the United States have adopted the requirements of the Supreme Court to provide reservation to racially discriminated students. This is also a step towards diversity in educational institutions. (Hamilton, 2001) the method followed by University of California is a good reference for providing preference to minority groups. The
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
..aims to compensate people for past discrimination and its effects. A main effect of past discrimination is current competitive disadvantage; affirmative action gives victims a competitive advantage to compensate for this injury." (1998) the Discrimination-blocking affirmative action according to Anderson: "...aims to block current discriminatory mechanisms by imposing a countervailing force in the opposite direction. It doesn't remove the factors -- prejudice, stereotypes, stigma, intergroup anxiety -- that cause discrimination;
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