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Is affirmative action fair?
Results so far:
| Yes | 57% | 952 votes | Total: 1684 votes | |
| No | 43% | 732 votes |
Yes
by Elaine Sihera
Created on: June 04, 2007
Affirmative action is fair, in the context of which it has been applied. But like anything else that has been in operation for a while, it needs reviewing and something else, perhaps more appropriate to these times, needs to be instituted.
The biggest case for affirmative action to continue in some form is with the college admission systems. So far, in colleges which no longer use affirmative action to place applicants, the number of Black students being accepted has dramatically declined. Cynics might say that it proves they were not eligible in the first place, but American society is very racist in key parts. Until that racism can be stemmed to some degree, there will always be a need for some remedial or affirmative action. When we have a situation where only White students are being educated in a given area, for whatever reason, what are the economic and social implications for the future when the students of ALL races are that future?
I have visited America as a Black woman on numerous occasions and have always been struck by the sheer apartheid nature of its society, the way people live in clear racial and cultural divides, hardly mixing at all, seldom understanding one another and with various erroneous perceptions of one another. There is an emphasis instead on getting the semantics right, promoting the jargon of equality without the substance to support it. Affirmative action is not there to treat anyone in more favourable terms than another. It is simply about representation: ensuring that a given community is reflected at all levels of activity, particularly in ensuring crucial opportunities to everyone in society, regardless of their colour or culture. The fact that most institutions in America are still very White in composition, despite the growth and success of minorities, show that affirmative action will be needed for a long time to redress the balance of routine and pervasive racism in society, not least because of its history.
As to the 'NO' writer who says that all colours in British society are treated 'equally' and fairly, she has obviously never lived in Britain! People might live harmoniously here but that does not suggest anything is equal. At least we don't live in exclusively racial ghettos. However, as a Black Briton, there is nothing fair about British society for minorities otherwise they would have advanced much further already. Britain is at least 20 years behind America in effective equality practices. The reason why there isn't more of a fuss about it is because minorities are not as organised, socially or politically, due to lack of awareness and smaller numbers. The social norms tend to suppress such issues and the history is rather different. Minorities in the UK are a long way behind successful counterparts in the USA because, though we need something like affirmative action to redress some of the glaring imbalances and inequities, that kind of action has been repeatedly resisted by governments. Yet the latest economic report on the state of minority communities in Britain makes dismal reading.
If a problem is never directly addressed and dealt with, it simply remains the same or gets even worse. Without doubt, racism is alive and well in America. Until one is on the receiving end of it, it really is a difficult concept to understand, appreciate and accept. A poor White person worries about not having any money and where the next crust is coming from. A Black person worries about the next crust, but also has the added burden of wondering who is going to stop him from getting that crust just because of his colour. That subtle difference between being White and Black can make or break lives.
The fact that affirmative action is being questioned now shows how successful it has been. Perhaps it needs something else to replace it to be more in tune with developing times, but there is no question as to its fairness and the need for it to redress the relentless inequity. Affirmative action may not be the best thing to remedy the situation for minorities, but it has been a crucial start in the process of equality. Whatever many people feel about it, rightly or wrongly, it has given a lot of minorities a positive start in their lives which they would have been deprived of primarily because of their colour and the spurious belief that one can engender equality simply by saying it without believing in it or acting upon it.
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No
by A. M. Gilbert
Created on: July 06, 2010 Last Updated: July 24, 2010
In the 1960s, a qualified candidate for a job could very easily be denied the position based solely on his or her ethnic identity. Intervention was needed to combat this flagrant discrimination.
Affirmative action made sense.
However, in today's society, this policy has no clear purpose. While racism will likely never be eradicated, anti-discrimination laws have rendered affirmative action largely obsolete. This case will prove that the current institution of affirmative action is unfair and, indeed, unjust.
I offer the following definitions from the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary:
Affirmative action- an active effort to improve opportunities for minority groups and women.
Just- conformity with what is morally upright or good; being what is merited.
The first contention in this debate is that affirmative action fails to aid those whom it is meant to aid. We can look at this through two more focused perspectives.
Affirmative action does not fairly aid all racial and ethnic minorities. The factions that fall under affirmative action policies are women and minorities that include primarily blacks and Hispanics, as well as other smaller ethnicities. Let us consider another of these groups: the Asian minorities. They constitute 4.4% of the total United States population (while blacks and Hispanics make up 12.4 and 15.4 percent respectively). Again, a key part of the definition of affirmative action is that it is used to help “members of minority groups.” So why is it that these policies do not help a minority that is smaller than both blacks and Hispanics? Affirmative action is failing in that it is not helping this division that needs help.
The basis upon which affirmative action is founded upon is unjust in whom it aids. The current basis for affirmative action is race and gender. If a person already has a good lifestyle, because they fall into a certain minority they are still given an advantage at the get-go due to affirmative action. This is not fair as this person has already achieved solid socioeconomic status. In a way, affirmative action is assuming that these minorities and women cannot obtain these positions on their own, and are “assuming” that they need aid to do so. But in the end, doesn’t a lower class person who has no means of paying for a certain school need help? We can look to policies enacted in certain states including Florida, where similar systems to affirmative action are based upon socioeconomic status rather than rather irrelevant ethnic identities.
The second contention is that affirmative action attempts to use further discrimination to alleviate the damages caused by past discrimination. Affirmative action is a misguided attempt to make up for the harms committed against certain minorities in the past such as slavery, the lack of civil rights, and the treatment of women in society and industry. The problem is that in attempts to resolve said problems, discrimination, whether it be conscious or unconscious, is enacted against the group that doesn’t fall under affirmative action.
Discrimination is defined as the treatment or consideration of a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit. The first part of this definition is that discrimination is in favor of a certain group, class, or category. This is exactly what affirmative action is doing: favoring the minorities and giving them greater opportunities while doing the opposite for others. The government simply cannot fight discrimination with further discrimination.
Furthermore, affirmative action sends the wrong message. In another contradiction, it attempts to progress society by planting it firmly in the past. We cannot hope to resolve race and gender issues until we are ready to move forward as a nation, and the nature of affirmative action unfortunately inhibits our ability to do so.
The third contention is that affirmative action is counterproductive to the existence of merit-based promotion in society. According to a study by the University of Virginia, “the acceptance rates for black students at the top 13 universities in the nation are significantly higher than that of the general acceptance rate.” The average acceptance rate for black students was 59% of those that applied, while the acceptance rate of other applicants was 28%. Even though these students may not have been the best in their class or have had the highest test scores, they are accepted mainly due to the universities trying to promote the policies of affirmative action.
On many college applications, a person’s race makes up a large fraction in the point system. As in the case of the University of Michigan, in which race counted 20 points out of the 150 point system. This counted more than the SAT scores that applicants have. As stated in the definition of just, it is something that is "merited.” Affirmative action is unjust in that it does not base positions granted to people on merit and what efforts they have made, but instead positions are given based off of arguably arbitrary and uncontrollable factors such as race and gender. This is simply unfair.
Affirmative action inherently works against the promotion of equal opportunity. The system is flawed: It does not evenly help all minorities or attempt to promote equal opportunity for the truly disadvantaged; it furthers a new form of discrimination; and it works against the American value of progress based upon merit. Due to its intrinsic opposition to true equal opportunity, affirmative action is not fair.
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