Affirmative Action example essay topic

353 words
The president creates the impression that "affirmative action" has enabled him, in little rock and washington to hire record numbers of minorities and women without sacrificing pre formance quality. Actually this is not quite what he claims: he does not say that the people he hired through "affirmative action" were as able as those he could have hired without it. HIs comparison is not between actual selections using "affirmative action" and possible selections not using it, but between his own appointments and those of other administrations. Nevertheless, he seems to offer his experience as proof that "affirmative action" increases racial and gender diversity without reducing quality. Forty-two years ago, in 1961, when President Kennedy proposed the idea of preferential treatment our great nation was in the mist of radical changes regarding civil liberties and justice for everyone. It was a time when people of all races began to realize and come to grips with the fact that minorities had been mistreated for years.

Most people including those in Congress and other political offices wanted to try to compensate for the years of oppression and injustice that had built the barrier for the advancement of minorities in America. That's when, in 1965, President Johnson introduced Affirmative Action as a way to give back for the discrimination that had persisted in spite of civil rights laws and constitutional guarantees (Time for Change). At the time, the idea was morally justified and socially acceptable and appropriate because of out nation's history and her current state. Today, after years of the government lending a helping hand to minorities, they want to jump to a new level with Affirmative Action. One major argument Affirmative Action advocates use over and over again is discrimination. They feel that they aren't getting equal rights and equal treatment.

With further understanding of discrimination, Affirmative Action completely contradicts the true meaning of it, therefore hurting themselves and their arguments in the process. So with Affirmative Action they hope to eliminate discrimination, but they are reversely discriminating against themselves and others.