Debates and propositions in argumentation theory

¶ … Symposium: College Admissions," by Deroy Murdoch. The article supports the view that to favor black persons entering college as part of an affirmative action program ultimately works to their disadvantage. The reason for this is that profiling of any sort draws attention to color differences and that students can somehow enter college on favoritism rather than merit. This has been perceived as reverse racism by white students not admitted to college as a result of student quotas.

The article is entitled "Color code - affirmative action," by Paul Craig Roberts. It appears in the National Review of 20 March 1995. The basis of the article is much the same as that above, with the assertion that affirmative action negates the "color blind" principle instated by Martin Luther King. Once again the premise is that affirmative action is reverse discrimination and negates democracy.

Article #3. The final article is by Danish D'Souza and is concerned with the evolution of social relations and the applicability of affirmative action to the new century. It is entitled "Beyond Affirmative Action" and appears in the National Review of 9 December 1996. The premise of the article is that affirmative action has served its purpose from the 1960's, but that current race relations require a new paradigm.

I began the search by using the "Google" search engine. I first typed in the words, "affirmative action" and "reverse racism." The results were several web sites that contained information about the issue, but generally did not support the proposition. I then looked at news web sites. Again I received news articles that were either completely neutral or in support of the opposite view. Finally I looked at the "Find Articles" web site, where I added to the above the keywords "college admissions." This brought me the results I was looking for.

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