Problem With Affirmative Action And Universities example essay topic

The United States Constitution states that every person has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. However, in the early years of the nation, minorities and women were put down and persecuted. Affirmative action is the nation's attempt to redress its long history of racial and sexual discrimination. Affirmative action is used in many different aspects of life.

Affirmative action is a disputed argument because if you take away from someone to help another, where is the justification in that? Affirmative action was born out of the civil rights movement thirty years ago. Affirmative action calls for minorities and women to be given special consideration in employment, education and contracting decisions. There is a great deal of politics involved in affirmative action laws. Republicans are usually for the end of affirmative action, while democrats are in favor in keeping it. The laws have caused disputes in the nation's capital and thus lead to further division of the government.

Affirmative action in college admission's has caused a dispute among America's families. "In a major victory for the University of Michigan, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the right of universities to consider race in admissions procedures in order to achieve a diverse student body". It is important in the United States that there be a well educated populace. The more educated the populace is, the more money American's will make and future generations will be better off.

Affirmative action activists state that in order for their to be this equality among people, there is a need for affirmative action. If our nations colleges and universities are vacated by white males and dominant groups, minorities will not go on. The University of Michigan has brought up a court case to the Supreme Court of the United States which will affect affirmative action for many years to come. "In two lawsuits challenging University of Michigan admissions policies, the court ruled 5-4 in favor of the Law School and, by a vote of 6-3, the University's undergraduate policy, allowing for the consideration of race in admissions. This appears to be a great victory for the University of Michigan and minorities, however, what happens to the majority. Should a white male who has better grades than an African American male be rejected from a university because he is white.

There was a court case heard by the Supreme Court called University of California vs. Bakke that had to deal with affirmative action in the colleges. Bakke applied for medical school at the University of California and was denied twice. He did some research and found out that he had better grades than all of the minorities who had been accepted. The Supreme court stated that schools should be allowed to use race but they also said Bakke should be admitted to the medical school. With the University of Michigan case the court has stated that a university will not be deprived of its ability to admit students on the basis of race. The University of Michigan will have both positive and negative outcomes.

The positive outcomes will be that those in the minority will be able to get themselves a college education and build up out of the minority. The negative aspect, is that those in the majority are just getting discriminated in the process. Shouldn't the student with the best grades be admitted to the university. Dan Froomkin says in his article, "Affirmative action is the nation's most ambitious attempt to redress its long history of racial and sexual discrimination. But in these days it seems to incite, rather than ease, the nation's internal division". Perhaps an attempt to end the problem with affirmative action and universities would be to just not put any race on the application and whoever has the better credentials will get accepted.

There has to be a compromise with affirmative action in school because no matter what way you look at it, one group is losing out. Affirmative action also plays a vital role in the professional and job world. Companies now have pressure to hire minorities and have to meet a certain amount in their business. Once again there is that area where the majority feels angry because they didn't get a job because the company had to give it to a minority.

Anti-Affirmative action activists will say that it would be wrong for a company to not hire someone who is a minority if they are the best candidate, however, if the most qualified person happens to be the majority, then they should received the job. The majority feels like they are being discriminated against themselves and put in the minority. Pro Affirmative action activists will say that in order to have a diverse and equal job community, there is a need for affirmative action. Without affirmative action in the job world then minorities would not be able to go on.

Affirmative action gives those who do not have as much an opportunity to build themselves up in the job world. As more minorities are given a chance, more future generations will build themselves out of the minority and into a better way of life. Affirmative action plays a big role in politics and political elections. For example", Bill Land Lee's nomination to be assistant attorney general for civil rights was rebuffed by the Senate because of his support for affirmative action". For the most part, republicans have been fighting to get affirmative action laws put to an end and democrats have been fighting to keep and mend them. Many leaders don't openly state how they feel on the subject because it could ultimately make or break them in the next election.

The country is not getting the most out of its leaders when they are too afraid to step up and state how they feel. There is affirmative action used in college sports as well. There is a law in the NCAA called title nine. Title nine states that there needs to be as many women sports as male sports. Male athletes were the majority at one time and they were taking up almost all of the budgets for athletic programs. Now, women are given as many sports as men or have the same amount of budget.

As a result of title nine, athletic departments have had to drop male sports that do not make as much money for the university. Most universities have had to drop these lesser programs to get women more of a budget and sports, while trying to keep one for their money making programs. This is good for women because they should be allowed to have the same amount of sports as the men and they should be able to have the same amount of money. Men say that this is not right because if their sport was making more money for the university that the woman's did, but they had to drop it because women need more sports, that isn't right.