Land of Opportunity - Assignment Example

Affirmative action, primarily targeting the African American community, is alternately viewed as a means of leveling the playing ground and as a discriminatory practice. Insofar as its proponents are concerned, affirmative action effectively ensures that colleges and universities, among other institutions, maintain a quota for African American candidates/students. In this way, African Americans have assured a place in institutions that would have otherwise been closed to them, largely because of their socio-economic circumstances and, as such given an invaluable opportunity for mobility.

It is important to note here that proponents regard affirmative action as society's responsibility towards the African American community and, the least of that which is owed them. Opponents, on the other hand, inclusive amongst which are some members of the African American community, maintain that affirmative action is inherently discriminatory and racist. African American community does suffer from a more restricted range of opportunities than does the majority and in light of the fact that latent racism may further constrain these opportunities, affirmative action is necessary.

Indeed, rather than consider it a negative remark on the abilities of African Americans, it could be more properly understood as a policy predicated on a lack of faith in society's own ability to judge African Americans on their own merit, rather than their skin color.Further fortifying the importance of affirmative action is the status of African Americans on all of the socio-economic indicators versus that of a comparatively recent immigrant group, the Asians. In direct comparison to the African American's close to four centuries of history in the United States, Asian American history in the United States is short, with the first immigration wave dating to the mid-nineteenth century.

This first influx of Asian immigrants was almost wholly comprised of Chinese manual laborers. Before this ethnic population could swell in numbers, Chinese immigration exclusionary measures were instigated in 1882, effectively halting Chinese immigration while encouraging Japanese Asian immigration. Eventually, however, discriminatory policies halted Asian immigration to America from the 1920s to the 1960s. Anti-Asian sentiments, as which instigated the implementation of discriminatory and exclusionary immigration policies, reached its peak during World War II.

Japan's alliance with Nazi Germany and most especially its attack on Pearl Harbor, led to widespread violence against Asian Americans. Indeed, following the said attack, Japanese Americans were interned in camps, unthinkingly classified as enemies despite the fact that many had been born.