by Beth Staiano

Created on: May 21, 2009

"When affirmative action was first introduced by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, it was a necessary evil in order to level the playing field in the college universities and the work place. I firmly believe that at present time, in the year 2009, affirmative action is no longer necessary and in many cases has been abused."

President Johnson was the enforcer of affirmative action. He believed that affirmative action was needed in order to level the playing field. However, that was over forty years ago.

From the very beginning, the intention was to make affirmative action temporary. The idea was to make it fair for minorities to have an equal chance of getting employment and a better education. Before affirmative action, these privileges belonged exclusively to whites. Over a decade later, in the late 1970's, things began to change. Reverse discrimination began to rear it's ugly head, and the pendulum began to change. In 1978, a white medical student by the name of Allan Bakke, was the first known victim of reverse discrimination. He had applied for medical school and was rejected two years in a row. The school had accepted minority students who were not as qualified as Mr. Bakke. The Supreme Court ruled in Mr. Allan Bakke's favor stating that he had been unfairly discriminated against.

The following website article points out that affirmative action normally leads to reverse discrimination. Affirmative action lowers the standards. Students that are admitted are normally not prepared to deal with the expectations of the college. The phrase "color blind" would take on a whole new meaning. It demeans minorities to say that they cannot be successful without the aid of affirmative action. A few years ago, the University of Michigan had a points system for rating potential students. If you were a minority student applying for the school, you automatically received twice as many points than a student applying for the school who was white.

Affirmative action can actually make it more difficult for minorities to take advantage of the opportunities that the United States has to offer. The problems often out weight the benefits by causing racial tension and resentments; not to mention the abuse of the system.

Back in 1978, the Supreme Court ruled the University of California at Davis to be unconstitutional due to the fact that they had used quotas when students were admitted. Justice Lewis Powell changed the standard when he stated that it is okay to achieve

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