Affirmative Action

Affirmative action is the perfect fuel for a heated debate among Americans in society today. It is rapidly becoming the most prominent target as many of the gains won by the Civil Rights Movement of 1960's are now in danger of being overturned. In the controversial realms of affirmative action, the largest issue fought over is whether minorities should be given preferential treatment in the workplace and in schools. In recent years, affirmative action has been debated more intensely than at any other time in its 35- year history. Many supporters view affirmative action as a milestone, many opponents see it as a millstone, and many others regard it as both or neither, as a necessary but imperfect, remedy for an intractable social disease. Many people who are opponents of affirmative action might disagree but I believe affirmative action is a positive political stance for the advancement of black people in America.

Affirmative action measures were established to fight racial discrimination. It is a policy to encourage equal opportunity and to level the playing field for groups as well as address and redress systematic, economic, and political discrimination against any group of people that are underrepresented or have a history of being discriminated against. According to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, affirmative action "is considered essential to assuring that jobs are genuinely and equally accessible to qualified persons without regard to their sex, racial, or ethnic characteristic (Stein 15)." The roots of affirmative action lie in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination illegal and established equal employment opportunity for all America regardless of race, cultural background, color, or religion. At first affirmative action aimed to eliminate racial imbalance in hiring policies. Later the goals were extended to include college

admissions and awarding of government contracts. Subsequent provisions extended protections to all people of color, women, and older people, and people with disabilities. Affirmative action goes farther by reassuring employers to take "affirmative" step to achieve a balanced representation of workers.

Affirmative action is practiced in many areas of our society, in addition to leveling the playing field for people of color. Many declare, such as myself, that those in the minority group need and deserve aid so that they will be on equal footing with the majority group. One area affirmative action addresses is preferential hiring programs. Many times people of color have been excluded from hiring pools, overtly discriminated against, and unfairly eliminated because of inappropriate qualification standards or have been rendered unqualified because of discrimination in education. Sometimes it is argued that affirmative action means that the best qualified person will not be hired. However, it has been demonstrated many times in hiring and academic recruitment that test and educational qualifications are not necessarily the best predictors of future success. This does not mean unqualified people should be hired. It means qualified people who may not have the highest test scores or grades, but who are ready to do the job may be hired. Employers have traditionally hired people not only on test scores, but on personal appearance, demonstrating that talent or closer ability can be defined many ways. As people emphasize the need for a color blind society, the reality is that color blind policies often put racial minorities at the disadvantage. For instance "color blind seniority systems tend to protect White workers against job layoffs because senior employees are usually

white (Ezorsky 9)." Likewise color blind college admissions seem to favor white students because of their earlier educational advantages.

It is also believed that schools work on a quota to get a fair amount people of color. Affirmative action plans do not impose quotas; they simply seek to increase the pool of qualified applicants by using aggressive recruitment and outreach programs, setting goals, and timetables and establishing training programs among other measures. Students are frequently admitted on basis of many preferences such as personal connections, financial contributions, geographical diversity or athletic skill. According to one source, "far more whites have entered the gates of ten most elite institutions through 'alumni preference' than the combined numbered of all the Blacks and Chicanos entering through affirmative action (Murell et al 78)." Further more, children of alumni admitted to Harvard had SAT scores that averaged 35 points lower than other Harvard students (Murell et al 79). In fact the without affirmative action the percentage of black students at many selective schools would drop to only 2% of the student body (Bowen et al 5)."This would effectively choke off Black access to top universities and severely restrict progress toward racial equality.

On the contrary opponents of affirmative action feel that it is an ineffective political stance that inhibits the move toward racial equality in America. One argument against affirmative action is that setting apart groups based on their race or ethnicity is purely racism. It is said that affirmative action increases the chance that a minority student will fail where standards are higher, instead of succeeding where the standards are at the level that matches the student's academic capabilities. Opponents of affirmative

action say they want to protect the rights of the individuals and that race and gender are irrelevant. However, they ignore the fact that it has always mattered whether an individual is white or of color, male or female, rich or poor. Opportunities in life have always been conditioned by those factors. I believe everything should be based on merit. There have always been preferences, yet no one ever said they lowered the quality until they began to be applied for the benefit of people of color. There is no evidence that affirmative action has lowered the quality in any situation. Employers tend to sometimes hire people like themselves and to think of them as the most qualified. "Merit" becomes the justification for this because it's somewhat harder to see and trust the qualifications of someone different.

Some critics have argued that affirmative action is a superficial solution that does not address deeper societal problems by redistributing wealth and developing true educational equality (Wilkins 410). Affirmative action is not a solution to creating an unbiased society, some might say but what is? Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that his

...