Possible O Aa example essay topic

Affirmative Action: Incorporate Page #'s when citing History of issue: Industrial jobs in the North (before WWI) went to white European immigrants. "Not until WWI were blacks given significant access to Northern labor markets" (Steinberg) [through Anti-Disc. Order in Fed. Defense Contracting 1941 Roosevelt passed] [He was afraid that countries overseas would see flaws in our world power democracy.] [Class notes] After Civil Rights Movement, to ensure that blacks were given same opportunity. Ie: James Meredith was denied admission at Ole Mis (Eyes on the Prize video) because of his race. AA was meant to "even the playing field" by establishing a point system to include race as a factor.

Present state of policy: Presently Prop 209 has completely eliminated AA in California altogether. Race cannot be a determining factor in anyway in regards to education or hiring practices. Other states like FL, Washington (D.C.) [NY]. have also eliminated the use of AA. The irony is that the states that contain the most minority population have done away with the system that was designed to help the minority population.

The Supreme Court did say there could be AA, but ruled out the use of quotas, and point systems. Race can be considered as one of many factors to promote diversity. Today, there is little belief in discrimination in the workforce and / or education system; blatant discrimination is not tolerated. There are equality laws, but with minimal results. (Although there are equality laws, racial prejudices are still prevalent -- -as well as institutionalized discrimination.

(CLASS NOTES) Pros and cons as given by authors Pros o Steinberg: AA is a way of revising occupational apartheid. AA is one of the most important policies to regress on occupational segregation. If AA would end, it would also mark the end of the second reconstruction -- - the end of racial equality itself. Cons o Steinberg recognizes that Nixon (via the Philadelphia Plan) would set civil rights and organized labor establishments "at each other's throats". AA was seen as the wedge separating blacks and organized labors good jobs. Pros o Kahlenberg: Advocates class-based AA because it benefits those advantage to those groups that have endured hardships, deprivation, exploitation.

It would benefit all races in that everyone has a repressed class. Race-based only recognizes repressed blacks. Class-based AA would benefit more people through more diversity. Cons o Kahlenberg: AA is a policy based on the idea of giving someone a secured advantage into a previously closed system. K: acknowledges that any preferential approach based on race, ethnic, religious or sexual lines could disrupt a multi-cultural society -- -leading to a backlash. If AA is to be implemented, it would need to be via combination of something more than just racial makeup.

Pros o Gutmann: Favors race-based AA because whites don't face the same discrimination. Gutmann feels that by a complex calculus based system is fairer because it considers more dimensions of disadvantage. Since blacks "are more likely than white to live in poverty, go to bad schools and live in single-parent homes". Cons o Gutmann: The educational disadvantages of blacks go unaccounted for under class-based. "The rising tide of resentment and distrust between blacks and whites in the U.S. makes the call to leave race preferences behind all the more appealing". Even the mere mention of AA provokes dislike, releasing greater oral expression of preexisting racial animosity.

Pros o Shrag: The only real rationale for establishing an ethnically diverse public-sector workforce is to increase its effectiveness and legitimacy. o Shrag: Old-boy networks would cease to dominate... (?) Cons o Class-based AA wouldn't enhance social morale of a minority community even if "every backhoe is driven by a poor boy". o Racial preferences aside, how can school admissions tests predict who will be a good doctor or lawyer? Criteria for admittance should be based on values incorporating honesty, good judgment, and performance instead of test scores. Pros o Dworkin: In addition to many more higher graduation rates among black college students; there is more interaction among different races than would have otherwise would have been possible. o AA is one of the most effective weapons we have against the racism that strict scrutiny is designed to thwart". Cons o Dworkin: Dworkin maintains the position of race-based AA, but acknowledges critics opinion that AA "exacerbates rather than reduces racial hostility". Race-based AA would damage the minority students who are selected for elite schools where they must compete with other students hose academic qualifications are higher than their own.

Dworkin does not maintain this position. 4) Assessment of effectiveness (goals, whether reached, if not why not) June 12, 1995: Adar and Constructors Inc. vs. Pena -- -applied strict scrutiny standards to federal programs. AAI granted equal opportunity in jobs and school. Goals of AA: o The point system was implemented to equalize opportunity for minorities. o Included race as a factor as an admission standard. Effectiveness: Ended explicit racism, Called for an end to racial discrimination in The Executive Order 10925-established March 6, 1961. Is effective in that it outlawed discrimination practices, but it's effectiveness in eliminating racial prejudices is much more difficult to eradicate.

Most people believe that discrimination is caused by prejudice. This is a faulty logic for 2 reasons: 1. Discrimination is a slow process that will eventually disappear, condemning those people living within it to deal with it. 2. Discrimination is not based on individual prejudices. It's institutionalized and cyclical.

Cycles need measures to break them. For example, Funding for Head Start programs, funding for minority school children. 5) Assessment of effectiveness of the integration use at least two sources: Effectiveness of Integration: Wasn't effective because although it integrated students, they just threw few blacks into all white schools, causing feelings of inferiority, racial tension (Wilkinson 158-159). There is diversity in schools, but there is still a large gap between whites and minorities in school organizations (Massey 117) It allowed access to resources and benefits that whites were formerly exclusively for whites.

6) conclusion: your opinion based on what has been discussed, read, AA is beneficial because it leads to structural assimilation in which social networking is formed. It allowed for minorities to enter occupations that would have otherwise been restricted to them if Affirmative Action did not exist. Further, like Steinberg mentioned Affirmative Action allows for the Second Reconstruction which is the rebuilding of the country by way of racial equality. In addition since blacks have a lower net worth and suffer discrimination, Affirmative Action sets the bar to a more equal level for the disadvantaged black population.