Affirmative Action Debate - Coursework Example

Affirmative Action: Odell J Evans Kelly-Neil Kaplan College CM 220 12/21/11 Introduction The nation’s most ambitious attempt to seek a redress of its historical racial and sexual discrimination has been through affirmative action. While decision makers in the educational institutions have shown willingness in promoting racial and gender diversity in their implementation of affirmative policies, the implemented and proposed practices have created controversy and legal challenges, as some consider these practices as creating favoritism rather than eliminating it. The order to implement affirmative action in university admission was enacted in 1972. It initially brought controversy among the university fraternity who were not used to having many women or mixed racial group being admitted in the University. They also saw it as a challenge because this meant that they would have to reorganize even their student leadership unions in order to include the women and the different races as the affirmative action order stipulated. This controversy remains up to date although there is wide acceptance now of affirmative action when it comes to university admission than before. There had been an existing stereotype that only whites are high achievers and elites of the United States society. This had been majorly because the other races (who belong to the minority group) had not been having equal access to higher education on the same level as the white people. In this regard, challenging affirmative action took a legal perspective. One case that drew a lot of support in doing away with affirmative action was the University of California Regents v Bakke in 1978. In this case, the Supreme Court made a ruling that University of Californias Davis medical school policy of admitting students was a violation of both the state and federal constitutions in addition to the Title IV. Title IV provided for equal benefits and equal treatment to all people in the United States, regardless of their race, color, or nation of origin, especially in institutions that received federal governments financial assistance which included institutions of higher learning like universities (McCutchen and McAuliffe 2003). Affirmative action policy therefore came to being. If affirmative action is enforced therefore, this will soon change and the stereotypes will be abolished. One way of ensuring this is by having the racial groups that have been stereotyped and discriminated against sign petitions for the implementation of this policy. If the signatures are more, the policy can be passed to be a law for all states and all institutions of higher learning 2007. Web.http://www.helium.com/items/698371-the-pros-and-cons-of-affirmative-action-in-the-college-admissions-process This is an article about the debate on affirmative which has the pros and cons of affirmative action in admission of students into colleges and universities and it shows how important affirmative action is in the enhancement of equality in the society. Enforcement of affirmative action in admission into universities and higher education for minority groups in the community will act to motivate those oppressed by the discrimination to join in the campaign for its implementation and to work even harder in school. Affirmative action in admission into universities or any other institution of higher level education has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantage is that individuals disfavored by race, gender or those belonging to a lower social-economic status will be motivated to achieve highly. This will lead to a break-up of the existing stereotypes and also enhance diversity in the employment sector. The country’s institutions of higher education have over time used race as a consideration while admitting and providing financial aid to students. In effect, the country has witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number of African-Americans and Latinos in the country’s education institutions in the first decade of the 21st century (Smith, 2006) Turning down a qualified student who has worked hard to gain admission into the university essentially goes against the founding fathers’ principle of a hard-working country where people work to achieve whatever they believe in. On the other hand, this raises the issue of affirmative action, locking out students while in the first instance; its adoption was to increase the minority’s participation in the education system. Implementation of affirmative action has benefitted the minority group and especially when it comes to leadership in the university and even outside. This is because the minority groups now have elite leaders who have strong educational background from the universities and who fight for the rights of their fellow group members and especially those rights which have not be implemented even after being passed (McCutchen and McAuliffe 2003). These leaders have acquired those leadership skills from universities where they learnt to be liberal due to integration and interaction with students from other races and sex. If the affirmative action debate had not been present, then such minority groups would still have no leaders to fight for their rights, a leader who understands the stigmatization and the discrimination that they have gone through in the past. United States experiences an influx of immigrants each year from all over the world coming to seek better jobs or education. Some also migrate as a result of wars in their countries. Such individuals need to fit and assimilate well in order to accomplish their objectives and achieve their goals. In order to do that, higher level education is required for such individuals. Failure to this may necessitate them to move into manual and casual labor which pays less which leads to poverty. With increased poverty, levels of crime may increase necessitated by the need to get food and money to pay their bills. The advantage of affirmative action in such a situation is that it helps such immigrants to access higher level education in universities with minimal financial requirements and hence finally securing better employment which prevents them from extreme poverty which may lead to crime (McCutchen and McAuliffe 2003). This way, crime incidences are reduced and stability is ensured in areas where those immigrants settle. Affirmative action is meant to advantage the minority group. This therefore serves to offer higher education to individuals from those groups who have qualified to joined the institutions but cannot due to lack of money to fulfill all the enrolment requirements. They therefore get to join those institutions through affirmative action and hence share the benefits that the others in the universities experience. This in the long run leads to peace in the country as demonstrations due to inequality will cease completely. Most minority groups in the United States have their roots in slavery and oppression which is how majority of such individuals got into America. Due to the fact that their fore fathers were slaves, the oppression and discrimination effect has trickled down through the generations and thus those groups have continually been regarded lowly. They have not been experiencing the benefits of higher education due to the presence of discrimination in such institutions. With affirmative action policy however, such individuals from those minority groups can break the oppression and discrimination that has been in existence and get the opportunity to prove their worth and capability to individuals in the majority groups. They have the initiative and power to change the existing stereotypes about them being inferior due to the slavery background. Affirmative action in this case will therefore act as a form of compensation for the slavery and oppression experienced over the years (McCutchen and McAuliffe 2003). Weaknesses of the affirmative action policy outweigh by far its benefits. In trying to understand these weaknesses, it is important to consider one of the most important principles of justice; to promote equal treatment to all people in this nation. However, when institutions practice affirmative action, there is unfairness to a majority of hard-working people who deserve an equal chance in the institution based on this principle of justice. In most employment sectors (especially the prestigious jobs), there is domination by certain genders only and the other minority gender (mostly women) are crowded in lesser positions of authority. This has been the case because fewer women have been accessing certain courses in universities and colleges which may lead them to authority positions in the job market. Most women are concentrated in art courses like home economics and secretarial courses, whereas men are in the managerial and science courses. If affirmative action is present in admission into these institutions, there can be an equal number of men and women in certain professionals hence reducing the discrimination and gender stereotypes present in the society. Seminars and trainings on assertive and capacity building techniques meant to empower girls in high school and help them fight the discrimination should be held countrywide. This will ensure a gender-sensitive generation which can fight for their rights to affirmative action by the time they are joining universities and colleges. 2011. Web. http://www.catalyst.org/publication/327/women-in-academia This is a research done by American Council on Education, 2011 and it explains how women have increased in number at the institutions of higher level to such great extent that they have even surpassed the men. These research statistics can be used to counter argue the notion that women are underrepresented in the higher education sector. Affirmative action was initially meant for the women (as they belonged to a minority group) but there are counter statistics which indicate that maybe men need more affirmative action in that sector than women. This is because, as a result of numerous campaigns by feminist movements in the United States, the number of women in higher education is now 57% compared with 43% of men in those institutions. These are statistics provided by American Council on Education, 2011. There must be sensitization and awareness creation based on the above statistics to stakeholders like parents, school teachers, policy makers and the young men themselves and it should also include ways to change the statistics so that affirmative action can be achieved. The above statistics may however not be generalized as this is not the case in most states in the United States. There is an ethical issue which hinders the overall effectiveness of the affirmative action policy in university admission. This issue is in regard to locking out students who have met the necessary qualifications (which are required to enroll into university) based on their ethnicity, in order to accommodate individuals from the minority groups. In this regard, affirmative action gives some students undue advantage over the others hence creating unfairness amongst the country’s citizens. Implementation of affirmative action in university admission may have negative long term effects on the minority group students after they complete campus and are in employment sectors. This is because they are stigmatized based on the “favor” they were done of being admitted into universities. They are stigmatized by other workmates who make them feel undeserving of the benefits of affirmative action. This needs to be addressed as it might prove to be a set back to the otherwise good course taken by the affirmative action debate. Other individuals feel that enforcing affirmative action in university admission is preferential judgment and treatment. It acts contrary to the constitution which strives to bring equality. They say this is so because affirmative action aims to make some individuals more equal than others by according them that preference of affirmative action when enrolling into university. The other disadvantage of affirmative action in university admission is that some individuals from those minority groups may feel that their ability to enroll into university based on their own academic efforts are undermined by the system of affirmative action (Smith 2006). The system makes even the bright students from those minority groups who have qualified to be admitted into university without the affirmative action to be generalized with those benefitting from affirmative action. This acts to demoralize them for the hard work and effort they put in order to pass. These students consider their hard work a waste when they compare with those who did not work hard enough to qualify to join the university regularly but who nevertheless end up joining the university as a result of the affirmative action. This shows the disadvantage of the affirmative action system. Minorities who have been subjected to affirmative action when enrolling in university have a higher chance of developing dependency syndrome than those individuals from majority group who are not subjected to affirmative action. The dependency comes about as a result of them getting used to being favored due to the fact that they belong to the minority group. This may prove to be a hindrance to their future success and especially in their work environment and in how they relate with their workmates. This is because they may constantly need to be accorded favors based on their race, ethnicity or gender. Students from minority groups joining high performing university or enrolling in courses that are technical as a result of affirmative action may experience difficulty matching the expectations of the course work or that of the university in regards to performance. They may end up failing their course due to the fact that they may not have the required intelligence for that particular level or for that particular course (Smith, W. (2006). This may lead to overall failure of the student hence even preventing them from securing employment after university. Such students may also prefer to drop out of school due to humiliation of failure or be expelled as a result of under-performance. This further acts up to disadvantage the affirmative action system in university admission. Affirmative action may lead to the discrimination issue being reversed and directed towards the majority group (who are the whites). This is possible due to the fact that so much attention has been diverted to the minority group to ensure that they get the justice denied to them throughout all the years that the qualified whites are by passed in the admission selection into university. The whites will soon become the forgotten group in the long run if this affirmative action policy continues to be implemented. Conclusion Great care must therefore be taken before this affirmative action debate eventually leads to a cycle of discrimination between the majority and minority groups in the United States. A balance must be developed to ensure that the affirmative action policy does not go overboard hence creating more harm than good. A review of the policy is required before it becomes too late to curb all the mentioned negative effects. References McCutchen, B. and McAuliffe, H. (2003). Preserving Diversity in Higher Education: A Manual on Admissions Policies and Procedures after the University of Michigan Decisions. (.Retrieved December 20 2011) from Web. http://www.sc.edu/faculty/PDF/diversity Novoa, K. (2007). The pros and cons of affirmative action in the college admissions process. (Retrieved December 8 2011) from Web. http://www.helium.com/items/698371-the- pros-and-cons-of-affirmative-action-in-the-college-admissions-process (Retrieved, December 8 2011) from Web. http://www.catalyst.org/publication/327/women-in- academia Smith, W. (2006). Special Focus: Racial Ideology and Affirmative Action Support in a Diverse College Student Population. The Journal of Negro Education, 75(4), 589-605. Read More