...My Case Against Affirmative Action In 1965 President Johnson, using executive action, introduced affirmative action as a way to redress past discrimination and racial bias. Although his action applied to government contractors, with the passage of Title VII colleges began implementing their own affirmative action programs and started admitting more minority students. In my opinion, affirmative action is not only discriminatory in its own right, but should be abolished by the courts that have seen so far to uphold it. Affirmative action, though started with good intentions, has now dissolved into a policy that gives minorities’ unfair advantage and encourages “reverse racism” instead of discouraging it. It admits lesser qualified minority students into post-secondary institutions while passing over more qualified students. As David Sacks and Peter Thiel say in their paper The Case Against Affirmative Action, “If, after 25 years, affirmative action has not succeeded in ending discrimination, perhaps it is time to try something else.” Affirmative action, in addition to hurting the minorities it supposedly is meant to help by placing unprepared students into colleges they are not ready for, all serves to promote racism. Anytime someone is placed above someone else based on race, that’s racism, be it a white student accepted ahead of a black student or vice versa. Today, especially in light of what we see in Missouri, Staten Island, and other cities, racism is seen as white...
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...could see discrimination even in animal kingdom. Animals have likes and dislikes based on factors like age, body confirmation, etc. Now, we as humans develop discrimination which appears to be granted by nature to us. Inequality rather than equality seems to be the act of nature for humans. Therefore, this discrimination can come in many colors and sizes; one good example could be one would choose the better and attractive breed of a canine other than that not so appealing. And just like this, there are many other ways for us as individuals to act on discrimination. Now when this discernment is taken further as in racial and ethnic differences the insight of this action shouldn’t be tolerable. Topics like philosophical and social implications of race, multiple racial, ethnic and cultural identities, racism, affirmative action, class conscious rather than color conscious, and the color blind principle are pointed out following. When we look at physical characteristics such as skin color from a social perspective, there is not a clear connotation; however, these physiognomies do have what we referred to as social meaning. Ethical Issues * Racial constructions and taxonomy are topics that somewhat have been rooted in the cognizance of our society by previous societies. I have come to believe that the biological sense of race is being slowly forgotten or dismissed. The majority of the general population here in America, potentially think these circumstances are only or mostly experienced...
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...In his article Proxy War, Author Michael Brus claims that affirmative action and racial discrimination are one in the same. He says that the main difference between the two is that affirmative action singles out minorities for desirable things while racial discrimination singles them out for something undesirable. to a certain degree, I can agree with him, but this debate is a lot more complex and is not as simple as white or black. Racial profiling is a very real problem, and many people have claimed to have experienced it, especially in the black and hispanic communities. Nobody should ever be judged or face discrimination by the color of their skin. But, opponents to the practice of affirmative action claim reverse racism towards white people. Affirmative action is a practice that is intended to promote fairness to minorities in this country by stating that individuals are created equally and they should not be judged by their race or gender. Using for an example jobs and university applications, minorities applicants should be considered as an acceptable choice as a white applicant. This is of course taking into consideration their background and experience. In other words,affirmative action is intended to give minorities that have experienced disadvantages an opportunity to succeed. Although this practice has good intentions, this is not what happens. While this practice is meant to support individuals, it is resulting in it being solely based on race. Imagine this hypothetical...
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...arguments against affirmative action include: * It is unfair to judge applicants on anything other than their merits. – There are numerous factors that a college should take into account when considering applicants – grades, test scores, and extra-curricular activities. An applicant’s race is not a legitimate factor to take into consideration because it is outside of the student’s control. It is impossible for a college to consider every aspect of a student’s background when making decisions on whom to admit. Why focus on race when there are so many other things that differentiate students from one another? * Affirmative action does not lead to true diversity. – Diversity of opinion is important in an academic community, not racial diversity. Affirmative action provides an advantage to some people because of the color of their skin. This is not an attribute that is relevant to the academic mission of a college. Affirmative action gives preferential treatment based exclusively on race, which is a purely external characteristic. * Affirmative action does not help really disadvantaged groups. – In many cases, affirmative action does not achieve its goal of helping disadvantaged minority groups. What it does is perpetuates socioeconomic inequalities by making it easy for members of racial minorities from privileged backgrounds to get into prestigious colleges while not helping members of the lower classes. * White Men Win $11 million Lawsuit for Reverse Discrimination...
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...Jeanette Cepin Power & Inequality In The Workplace Term: Summer 2015 Professor: Bonnie Johnson Final Reflection Essay Wouldn’t it be great if we lived in a society that with hard work, dedication, and discipline we can accomplish the so called “American Dream”? Some have been able to accomplish this dream, but many still struggle and continue to work non stop in order to reach a dream that is almost impossible to achieve. The United States of America, “the land of the free and opportunities”, hasn’t really been the land of the free, with opportunities for all. During my 7 week summer course, I was able to have a better and deep understanding of how the United States is structured to benefit a certain group while denying others opportunities. How those in power acquired their power, work to maintain it through inequality, how these inequalities can a lot of times be correlated, and how can we work together to make a difference. In order to understand inequality we must first identify what are the factors that contribute in creating it. Social class, which can define one’s position in society, contributes to a form of conflict. Social class divisions have always played a prominent role in America. These class distinctions inflict unfair on all Americans. The idea of social class has been a central concept in determining the opportunities a person is capable of having. People from different socioeconomic backgrounds live different lifestyles as well...
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...effects of racial discrimination is unconstitutional. They argue that the idea of reparations is rooted in international law. • Affirmative Action is inadequate, the ‘Maafa’ (meaning disaster, i.e., slavery) is a crime against humanity, and therefore compensation is required. • In the past 50 years apologies and financial compensation has been given to a wide range of groups, including survivors of the Jewish holocaust (as well as descendants of the victims), Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned during the Second World War and native Americans who had their land illegally seized in the USA. • African Americans have been demanding compensation for slavery since the end of the American Civil War. Immediately after the abolition of slavery, the demand was for 40 acres and a mule to ensure they would not be dependent on their former slave-owners. Then, between 1890 and 1917, there was a movement to lobby the government for pensions to compensate for their unpaid labour under slavery. Since 1989, Congressman John Conyers Jnr (Michigan) has introduced a bill every year to study the case for reparations. Each of these initiatives has been largely ignored by the political establishment. • Reparations would ensure full recognition of the scale of the Maafa and, at the same time, undermine those who claim that there is no further need for Affirmative Action. They would also compensate for slavery, provide psychological relief for black anger and white guilt resulting from centuries...
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...of federal and state laws prohibit racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is the practice of letting a person's race or skin color unfairly become a factor when deciding who receives a job, promotion, or other employment benefit. It most often affects minority individuals who feel they have been unfairly discriminated against in favor of a Caucasian (or white) individual, but there have been recent cases where whites have claimed that reverse discrimination has occurred—that is, the minority received unfairly favorable treatment at the expense of the white individual. Racial discrimination in the workplace has been a challenging issue for the United States since awareness rose in the 1960s. Blacks and other minority workers have faced intimidation, harassment and subtler forms of racism such as the difficulty of landing a job or promotion, even when they have the requisite qualifications. The United States has been actively combating racial discrimination in the workplace for 46 years, yet challenges remain. Many people do not really know much information on how racial discrimination at workplaces may take place, but many concerns can be answered with these following questions: 1. How long has racial discrimination at workplaces been going on for? 2. What are the laws on racial discrimination about? 3. What are some reasons for racial discrimination? 4. What is required to prove a racial discrimination case? This review on Employment Law focuses on these four questions...
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...were some of the first people to colonize the country, and have played such a big role in the history of the country. I also, as I will attempt to explain later, feel like I may identify better with their culture. The English initially came to America to colonize The New World and stake their claim in what was and has always remained one of the most important resources: land. America at the time of their arrival was still a frontier land thus far only sparsely colonized by the Spanish. The English first landed at and founded Jamestown in 1607, and quickly became one of the dominant ethnic groups in America. By 1790 about 60% of White Americans were English, and being the “majority” ethnic group in the country they really experienced very little racism against them, though the early days of their colonization was far from conflict free. Many skirmishes with local Indian tribes, coupled with disease outbreaks, lead to high mortality rates for early colonies. These conflicts with Indians were not the only violent encounters they had with other ethnic groups as they were almost constantly at war with the Spanish. Though their wars with the Spanish were primarily politically motivated and not due to their ethnic differences, it did lead to a sort of forced segregation between the English and Spanish colonies early on. A similar segregation existed between the English and Indian tribes as well, and this was at least to some extent an ethnic issue. The trend of the English...
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...made up of German-born farmers. These farmers would sometimes forfeit more fertile ground to settle closer to other German farmers. Even in the cities, Germans would cluster into small communities. There they would form a smaller version of Germany. They would create prominent German businesses like breweries, bakeries, cigar makers, and so on. Women on the other hand would be working as house cleaners, laundry workers, nurses, peddlers and others, instead of factory work and clerks like their American counterparts (Thinkquest, N/A). In the 2000 census nearly one-sixth of the population in the US showed at least some German ancestry (Schaefer, 2004). Throughout my research I have found no evidence of any type of discrimination, including racism, segregation, or prejudice, possibly due to the large number of immigrants that began and continued to enter the US. They, along with the English, were two of the three largest groups to immigrate, and continued that way for many years. ”By 1790, when the first census of Americans was taken, more than 8.6 percent of the overall population of the United States was German, although in Pennsylvania more than 33 percent was German (Rippley, 2010) .” These words are defined...
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...GENDER-BASED AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND REVERSE GENDER BIAS: BEYOND GRATZ, PARENTS INVOLVED, AND RICCI ROSALIE BERGER LEVINSON* I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II. History Behind the Affirmative Action Race/Gender Anomaly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III. The Circuit Split on the Race/Gender Conundrum . . . . . . . . . IV. Analogy to Race-Based Affirmative Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Remedial Purpose as a Justification for Affirmative Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B. The Diversity Rationale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C. The Arguments Against Affirmative Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . V. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I. INTRODUCTION The blockbuster race discrimination cases in recent years have all involved affirmative action and reverse discrimination. The Supreme Court has made it clear that race classifications, whether benign or invidious, will trigger rigid strict scrutiny analysis, which requires that the government prove its program is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest. In 2003, the Court, in Gratz v. Bollinger,1 ruled that while student diversity in educational institutions may be a compelling interest, an affirmative action program that...
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...3 Sources of Moral Obligation by Josephson Institute on February 14, 2011 A duty is an obligation to act in a certain way. When the obligation is based on moral and ethical considerations, it is a moral duty. Often we think about moral duties in terms of rules that restrain us, the “don’ts,” as in don’t lie, cheat, or steal. Such rules comprise the so-called negative dimension of moral duty because they tell us what not to do. Since ethics is concerned with the way we ought to be, however, it also includes an affirmative dimension consisting of things we should do — keep promises, judge others fairly, treat people with respect, kindness and compassion. Sources of Moral Obligation Moral obligations can arise from three sources. The first, strangely enough, is law. 1. Law-Based Moral Obligations. Good citizens have a moral as well as a legal obligation to abide by laws; it is part of the assumed social contract of a civilized society. If a law is unjust, however, (such as those that mandated ethnic and religious persecution during the Nazi regime and those that discriminated against a person on the basis of race in South Africa and elsewhere) there may be a moral obligation to disobey it under the specific and demanding doctrine of civil disobedience. Many, but by no means all, of these moral standards of conduct are so fundamental to healthy social relations that they have been codified into laws. For example, most aspects of the moral duty to not endanger or harm others...
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...learn all my best effort c. Celebrate differences d. Many truths in the world e. Multi-disciplinary makes largest impression f. Analysis of power and privilege needed g. Disagree with being… h. Stay on top of things to always justify i. Show every side, let them decide j. Get thicker skin k. Good intentions are not enough l. First step begins with helping the hurt m. I must be the change Question: According to contemporary anthropologists, is race a stable category for organizing and differentiating the people of our world? (L, F-2) No its not According to the instructor, what is the first multicultural step for educators to make? (L) a. Become aware and educated on the cultures they will be dealing with. Realize that racism exists and that, if teachers are white, they have benefited from it. According to the instructor, is it wise for educators to officially adopt the concept of “color blindness” as a professional model to...
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...Exam 2: Introduction to African American Studies Short Answer Questions: Be sure to respond to both parts of the question. (4 points each/100 points total) 1. Name the leader of Black America’s Accommodationist camp during the early twentieth century. Give an example of his “accommodationist” views. Booker T. Washington. Washington felt the best way for Black people in the South to get ahead was to stay with the same skills they had practiced under slavery, namely farming and vocational trades. “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” In this line, he indicates that Blacks and Whites can work together with the latter feeling no threat to the system of segregation in the South. 2. Who was considered the leader of Black America’s Radical camp? Give an example of his radical views. W.E.B. Du Bois. He is associated with the concept of “The Talented Tenth,” which is a reference to the top ten percent of Black Americans who Du Bois felt should lead the way in creating opportunities to advance the lives of all Black people. He also felt that Blacks should have the same rights that any White person had. 3. Who were considered the “Talented Tenth”? Name a specific person who fell into this group. A reference to the top ten percent of Black Americans who Du Bois felt should lead the way in creating opportunities to advance the lives of all Black people....
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...Construction of Identity and Worldview: The Influence of Social Variables The meaning of human identity is vast and complex. Identity, for our purposes, is in part a derivation of an inseparable piece of one’s consciousness, and largely an assembly of attitudes, behaviors, values, and beliefs collected and learned during a lifetime. Individual identity, as the centerpiece of an individual’s place in society, is the mechanism through which worldviews are shaped. Identity may seem a nonessential study of little consequence in comparison to more explicit and trenchant topics, but actually is very consequential. Identities and worldviews are, after all, what have defined and created our reality as we know it. Movements toward social equality and political progressiveness have been born as a result of identities and worldviews differing from that of the collective. To study the social variables that mold identity and construct worldview is to study how our species has created our reality. Learning about the way identities and worldviews are shaped is the first step necessary in altering the formation of those identities and worldviews in order to change our thinking; to create a better and more equal reality. In some cases, such as my own, the formation of an individual’s identity is influenced by a collection of social variables typical of those within their society, as well as variables considered atypical. An absence of organized religion, Caucasian racial categorization, a culture...
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...Is Racial Antipathy Increasing? The Polarizing Effect of Obama’s Presidency Abstract Previous research has shown that individuals who are highly conservative are more likely to hold negative perceptions of African-Americans and other minorities. Furthermore, racial antipathy affects the way individuals perceive Barack Obama. In light of recent trends, this study tested whether individuals who identify themselves as Republicans are substantially more likely to maintain negative racial attitudes. The study also investigated whether white Americans are more likely than other racial groups to harbor racial prejudices and disapprove of Barack Obama. Results from this study indicated that racial resentment plays a significant role in contemporary politics. Data from between-subjects ANOVA and correlational analysis suggested that the Democratic Party and Republican Party are polarized in regards to racial issues. Moreover, conservative whites are the most likely racial group to hold racial prejudices against African-Americans. Finally, disapproval of President Obama is highly associated with high levels of negative racial stereotypes. Keywords: race, antipathy, conservatism, prejudices, Obama Is Racial Antipathy Increasing? The Polarizing Effect of Obama’s Presidency In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African-American to become President of the United States. His election marked a pivotal turning point in American politics. To millions, Obama’s election signaled...
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