The Affirmative Action - Essay Example

Affirmative action was certainly needed to right the wrongs committed before the Civil Rights Era. Quotas, set-asides, and racial balance can only be justified in this context. In the wake of the Jim Crow Era, the American people did not have the patience to let racism die a slow death over several generations. Allowing subtle forms of racism to persist may have prolonged discriminatory practices indefinitely.
While there are still people that maintain bigoted ways of thinking, I think we have come to a point where affirmative action does more harm than good. However, the only way to know for sure would be to end affirmative action and monitor the consequences. It is perhaps for this reason that the Supreme Court has chosen to err on the side of caution and allow some affirmative action policies to be maintained for at least the next 25 years. The blatant use of quotas has been struck down, but this hasn't protected corporations and institutions from lawsuits. Just as the prohibition of discrimination has resulted in more subtle forms of discrimination, the prohibition of quotas has resulted in more subtle forms of affirmative action. Quotas will not go away until racial imbalance cannot be used as evidence of discrimination.

The problem with quotas is that racial imbalance is not just the product of discrimination. There are other confounding variables aside from race. It has become apparent that socioeconomic status is a better predictor of academic aptitude. Although there are correlations between socioeconomic status and race, it is not right to perpetuate a system where performance is not rewarded. The initial effect of affirmative action was to challenge bigoted ways of thinking. Now that those deeply ingrained beliefs have been challenged and adjusted to reality, the persistence of affirmative action is beginning to generate a backlash of racial animosity. Affirmative action must be ended before this backlash becomes ingrained in our way of thinking. Whether it happens now or 25 years from now, affirmative action must end at some point in time. When the confounding variables are better predictors of performance than race, racial balance in the result no longer corresponds to racial equality of opportunity. Racial quotas cease to be a means towards the constitutional guarantee of equality when race is no longer the driving force behind inequality.
Despite the thinking of the Supreme Court, I would argue that affirmative action and quotas were unconstitutional, to begin with. I would also argue that the initial implementation of affirmative action has done better than harm. However, affirmative action must end at some point in time to ensure real equality. I think we have come to a point in time where racial discrimination is no longer the primary cause of inequality. I think the time has come to end affirmative action, but we will have to be careful to make sure we don't slip back into our old ways of doing things. Read More