Affirmative Action Essay, Research Paper
Opinion On Affirmative ActionNote: This essay contains opinions NOT shared by the host of this web site. Affirmative action is wrong and will not help solve the problemsminorities face. The reason it is wrong is because it’s discrimination. It has no place in today’s society in today’s society because it does morebad than good. In addition to that most people don’t enjoy the presence of affirmative action. Also, it appearsthat affirmative action can actually be detrimental to employees health. First of all, affirmative action is discrimination, there is nohiding it. When an employer hires anyone because he or she is a minority,even if someone else if more qualified to do the job, it isdiscrimination. Just because it is reverse discriminat ion, when whitesare discriminated against and minorities are being discriminated for,doesn’t make it right. Affirmative action legalizes discrimination(Steele 1990, 39). “I thought discrimination was illegal in this country(Buchanan 1995, 1).” Also , if this discrimination continues racism inthe United States may become worse. Imagine what you would feel like ifyou couldn’t get a job just because you are a white man and not a hispanicman. The racism will become worse because of it, and that is the verything it is trying to prevent. It is possible that because of affirmativeaction, racism will grow and continue to grow until we history repeatsitself and we end up living under Jim Crow laws again. That is an extremepossibility to end up und er Jim Crow laws again, but it is a definitepossibility to end up somewhere close to Jim Crow laws again. In addition to that, people say affirmative action is ok becauseit cures past discrimination (Keyes 1996, 1). Discrimination wasn’t okwhen blacks were the ones getting the short end of the stick. Thereforeit’s not ok when whites are discriminated ag ainst (DeWit 1996, 1). Twowrongs don’t make a right. Therefore, affirmative action doesn’t makediscrimination ok just because it’s against blacks instead of whites. Affirmative action in college is the most discriminating thingthis country has ever seen since the Jim Crow laws many years ago(Buchanan 1995, 1). At ivy league colleges the median GPA of applicantsis close to 4.0 and S.A.T.’s are close to 1300, mino rities are let inwith GPA’s less than 3.0 and S.A.T.’s less than 1000 (D’Souza 1990, 231). The only way for colleges to achieve ethnic proportionalism is todownplay or abandon merit criteria and to accept students from typicallyunder represented groups, such as blacks, hispanics, and american indians,over better qualified students from am ong whites and asian americans(D’Souza 1990, 231). Obviously, affirmative action is allowing undereducated citizens to getinto college when the people that are qualified aren’t getting acceptedwhen they should. When we passed the equal opportunities law, it didn’tmean treat different races differently , it means we should treat allpeople as equals, affirmative action doesn’t treat everyone as equals(Hacker 1990, 229). If we lower acceptance standards for minorities, we
should lower standards for everyone. Since nobody would do that we shouldraise the standard for minorities. In addition, if affirmative action gets its way, it will do moreharm than good. Affirmative action will only work short term because ifyou hire a minority that’s under qualified they’ll eventually get fired. Also, you can only hire so many people, ev entually you’ll get too muchunder qualified people working for you and you’ll eventually have toabandon affirmative action all together. Also, affirmative action doesn’twork because it doesn’t change anything (Keyes 1996, 1). If there isracism in to day’s modern age, then racism will always be present andaffirmative action won’t work. In addition if we need to discriminateagainst white people to give minorities jobs now, it won’t change. Givingsomeone a job won’t do any good in making the qualit y of life ofminorities better. Just because you enroll more minorities in yourcollege, doesn’t mean you’re making the playing field even. When someoneisn’t good enough to get into a certain college, they’re out of theirleague when they get in. Only 15% of black and 22% of hispanic affirmative action students accepted toBerkeley in 1987 graduated (D’Souza 1990, 233). To give minorities abetter life “we have to fix the moral decay caused by the absence of twoparent families to help minorities” (K eyes 1996, 1). Affirmative action is also insulting to minorities because theymay feel they have to be helped out just to get a job (Steele 1990, 37). A minority that benefits form affirmative action may feel that they’reinadequate for the job they were hired for. “Every employee that benefits from affirmative action bears a mark ofnot being the best pick, but only the best pick from a limited group”(DeWit 1996, 1). When one thinks about it, they will discover that theywould get a better feeling of satisfacti on if they got a job because theywere the best person for the job, not because they were hispanic. Employers may also feel cheated because they didn’t get as good a workeras they could have gotten (DeWit 1996, 1). Employers that hiringemployees solel y on the color of their skin are discriminating (DeWit1996, 2). Affirmative action is very dangerous to the american people. Ifan employee hires an under qualified worker then that worker puts othersat risk if he or she doesn’t have enough experience to know what to do andwhat not to do. It’s also financially da ngerous. You don’t want to payunexperienced people to do work they’re not qualified for. In conclusion, affirmative action is just wrong. Affirmativeaction should be abolished, such an unlawful thing shouldn’t even beconsidered in the United States. If we allow affirmative action toproceed, we are just proving to ourselves that we endor se and acceptdiscrimination in the workplace. There is absolutely no reason why itshould exist. Affirmative action lends a bad name to the United States ofAmerica. Others may view our fine country as a country with people thatare so irresponsible the government has to lower its standard just to getpeople jobs (DeWit 1996, 2). This indicates that affirmative actionshould be outlawed because it has no place in our finecountry. Essay Data Section