Last night a friend and I stumbled onto the topic of Affirmative Action. She claimed it to be "bullsh*t" I on the other hand disagree with her. Understandable that it may seem like another form of discrimination or segregation but we must not forget that for certain groups in this country "equality" doesn't necessarily hold the merit. People argue things that the civil rights movement got rid of the segregation issue openly. However, those who already had set views or traditional racists already held positions of power. So what stops them from still being racist and condoning segregation subtly? Besides Affirmative action isn't just for African Americans, its for all groups that are treated unequally at one standard or another. One could argue that if such racism does exist then Affirmative Action is just a quota and it ultimately leads to discrimination. I believe discrimination in this country is inevitable at some point or another because of the various ideologies of our society.
Ideas? If we were to completely get rid of Affirmative Action do you think this would be a progressive decision?
Affirmative Action is certainly a very controversial subject and should be taken seriously. However, I do believe that just like professor Silliman told us in class, not all discrimination is necessarily a bad thing. You stated that discrimination is inevitable. if this is the case then we must use positive discrimination. The example we presented in class was when looking at job applicants who have the same credentials, what it may come down to at times is someone who is a minority getting the job. This is of course only if they are equally as qualified for the job as someone who is not a minority. This is a good thing, because it creates more diversity and equality, which seems to be what we are working for as a society. So to answer your question, no we should not completely get rid of affirmative action, but we must handle it very delicately
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sebastian. In fact, the Supreme court started taking affirmative action seriously when Justice Powell's opinion included the idea that affirmative action was not merely a way to correct past injustices, but should be seen as beneficial to society by virtue of achieving diversity.
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