Saturday, October 27, 2007
Is Affirmative Action Fair?
I am a person who believes in equal rights and I think that everyone should be on a level playing field. The purpose of affirmative action is to promote access to eduacation and employment to nondominat groups in society like minorities and women. The goal of affirmative action is to decrease discrimination that these groups faced in the past while it encourages various social institutions to be more representative of the whole population. I personally don't agree with affirmative action. I'm not a racist person, I just believe that everyone should have the same opportunities. If a white male is more qualified than an african american male, then the white male should be hired and vice versa. I feel as though social institutions such as universities miss out on qualififed white people because they are trying to fill their quotas for minorites. This is unfair fro the "majority" groups and in a sense causes discrimination against them. The purpose of affirmative action is to decrease discrimination, however I feel that minority groups are just discriminated against more because they are labeled as inferior to whites so they should get advantages over them. I believe that race should not even be a factor in getting a job, being accepted to a university, and various other things. The question of race shouldn't be asked on applications; people should be hired or accepted based on their qualifications and merit. Then, the person most qualified and right for the job should be hired not based on their race. I do believe in equal rights, but I think it should be equal rights across all of society. Whites should not be discriminated against because we are trying to prevent it in minority groups. I don't believe affirmative action is the answer; why can't everyone just be treated the same and profit in life based on their own merit and not because of some act that gives you a head start?
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6 comments:
I totally agree with everything you say about hiring the best man for the job, and making society equal across all boards, however I don't think your looking at the whole issue. Affirmative Action is not just a tool to eliminate some of the barriers that exist as a direct result of past events but also some barriers that still exist today. A story featured recently in the Fayetteville Observer stated that almost 89 percent of all minorities in the USA are likely to attend an elementary, middle, and high school that has failed to meet growth as dictated by the Federal No Child Left Behind Act. While when white students were reported that number decreased drastically to only 37 percent. How can one say that white students, and citizens are being given a raw deal when statistics show that minorities are not even being given the same level of education, and support, as well as often being limited by funds and supplies needed to to compete with white students both in school and in the workplace. When you look at Affirmative Action as needed because of beliefs and actions that were present in the past it does seem very unfair, but when analyzing social and economic standards today it can clearly be seen why it is both fair and necessary.
I agree with what you say--hiring people should be based on qualifications and not on race. But the unfortunately fact of our society is that there are people who do not believe in the same values as you. This may seem tangent, but I remember seeing a NBC investigation where they set up interviews for 4 people--two were qualified for the jobs, and two were not. The two who were not qualified for the jobs were better looking--and they ultimately got the jobs. NBC attributed this to people preferring handsome people over "average" people. This could probably be connected to the hiring of certain races. If a company or a company's representative prefers to hire certain races, they will continue to do so until compelled by affirmative action laws to do otherwise.
I have often asked myself the exact same questions that you present in this blog. I believe that race should not play a part in whether or not a person gets accepted into a university, receives a scholarship, or gets a job. Affirmative action may be necessary in some ways, but in many other aspects it seems to only increase race related issues. I definitely agree that each of the things that you listed related to school and employment should be based only upon one's qualifications.
Everyone keep saying that jobs should be given upon qualifications which is a very logical way of thinking, however one has to take into account that we as society cannot accurately determine who is most qualified for a job when everyone is not given the same amount of education or oppurtunity's to become qualified. It is often found that people who are seen as "less qualified" for a job our only seen as such because they have not received the same amount of formal education. When they enter the workplace, though, they gain the knowledge needed for the job and it becomes clear that there were unjust barriers that prevented them from fulfilling society's definition of "qualified." As unfair as it is, barriers such as race, social class, and location, can all affect how far a person can go in our society, and until this fact is alleviated Affirmative Action will be necessary. In addition I ask anyone that is against Affirmative Action how they can condone awarding scholarships for University's to athletes. Though some argue that these people must also maintain good grades, I counter that there are many students that make perform at the same level and in some cases better than these people and they still often cannot afford to attend college. If this is fair, how can one argue the Affirmative Action is not?
I don't believe that giving scholarships to athletes can be compared to affirtmative action at all. Athletes who receive scholarships have put their time through high school wholly into their sport and in turn they deserve to get rewarded for it. It is not as if they have done nothing and are getting a head start; they have actually earned it and worked hard for it.
In response to perfectlyimperfect's first comment: You said that 89% of all minorities in the USA are likely to attend a school that has failed to meet growth according to the No Child Left Behind Act, while white students decreased to 37%. I know for a fact that in certain districts, parents are allowed to choose the school that they want their child to go to. They don't have to go to a school who has made growth, they can go to the schools who have made growth. It is up to the parents and the students aren't forced to stay at the school that has not made growth.
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