Affirmative Action Debate

Debate on Affirmative Action

The debate on affirmative action has pursued arduously through the middle and late 19th century. The idea of affirmative action initiated in the executive orders issued by President Franklin Roosevelt after World War II ending discrimination in hiring practices. However the term was coined by President John F. Kennedy, who strove to end discrimination by introducing his own order to ensure equal opportunity under the law. A few years later congress acted itself upon this order and passed the civil rights act of 1964 which barred not only discrimination on race, but also based on gender and religion. Other presidents in the past such as Lyndon B. Johnson wrote other executive orders on the same principle of being race blind when dealing with people in the work place. The turn of the century congress bought affirmative action programs which gave preference to minorities when it came to acceptance in to higher education and in employment. This spurred a slew of court cases which in turn sparked a national battle, debating upon whether affirmative action programs were fair and constitutional.

What did the affirmative action programs attempt to compensate in the first place? Many believed that society as a whole had moral obligations to pay reparations for their previous wrong doings. One of the most famous examples was the African Americans slavery in the Americas. This type of discrimination left African American groups without formal education or employment opportunities in their communities. The Los Angeles times concurred saying, "For many Americans, mindful of slavery, Jim Crow and other variants of racial bigotry, the cost described by the California experience (and now in several other states) is measured by the capable minority students who were not admitted to college" (Los Angeles Times, Lee C. Bullinger). People were faced with social and racial discrimination, and were physically and psychologically affected which in turn impaired their ability to succeed in society. In Brazil it was very much evident that slavery stricken areas existed, and that the original slave population were placed under a poverty cycle. They were never given enough money or education to break out of the poverty line. Affirmative action programs, especially in higher education allowed many who had endured this suffering to get better educations in order to succeed. Furthermore it allowed these people to get entry jobs in the workplace and allowed them to work up their ranks of their field with hard work and determination. Research today has also shown that many minority groups fall under a lower income bracket, yet with affirmative action programs, their children will be able to get a higher education with college grants and scholarships.

Another idea that may be a direct consequence from underprivileged history is that minorities in colleges today are vastly under represented. Today, higher percentages of white Americans are graduating from high schools and are enrolled in higher education. Today's admission process gives wealthier families and students more connection and chance of getting into top tier colleges since they have the money to pay for the expensive schooling. Affirmative action acceptance programs take race as a factor when processing admissions so that schools can meet quotas of certain ethnic, race, and gender. This allows the schools to create a more diverse environment. The Los Angeles times reported, "Psychological research confirms the intuitively sensible conclusion that minorities in a variety of settings will expend sizable intellectual and emotional resources" (Los Angeles Times, Lee C. Bullinger). Classes whose students contain diverse backgrounds are likely to generate new ideas and come to more solid resolutions since they are getting many different cultural