Norah Vincent has a convincing column on “Affirmative Action’s Negatives” in today’s Los Angeles Times. (Also linked by Howard Bashman) Excerpt:
Conservatives do not oppose affirmative action because they are crypto-racists. They oppose it because they deem affirmative action itself to have become racist and, what’s more, unconstitutional in its current form, an outright system of racial quotas that blatantly discriminates not just against whites but also against nonblack, Latino or Native American minorities, violating the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Purists may quibble with her argument that affirmative action was once necessary — after all, if it in fact violates the 14th Amendment now, it also did earlier — but her view that both times and affirmative action itself have changed is presented well and is well worth reading.
affirmative acio is worng bc it denies equal protection under the law
Affirmative action is wrong i the sense that it gives an unearned attvantage to alomst anyone who thinks they have been “held down”. So now when a white male who has a 4.0gpa and very active in the community, is discriminated against and loses a college acceptance to a hispanic female who has a 2.5gpa and not active in the community, everyone thinks it’s perfectly okay because of her situation.
Of course affirmativeaction is wrong. The defition states to redress past discrimination. So because someone was discriminated against in the past doesn’t give them presidence over a more academically qualified individual.
Do you think our society needs affirmative action in the 21st century? Or anyone needs to be walked through life by a law, just because the color of there skin? My opinion on this is we do not need Affirmative action because our society does not need any special treatment for any minority, and it doesn
First of all, your making it sound like every minority that goes to college or gets hired to a company was because of affirmative action which is simply not true. There are a number of minorities as well as women who are just as qualified as many white people. Secondly, affirmative action is designed to help QUALIFIED minorities and WOMEN, whether they be white, black, red or yellow. Because slavery was such a big part of this country’s development, it’s effects can’t be ignored. The tobacco industry, which is one of the biggest industries in the world was made as prominent as it is now, because of the FREE LABOR of slaves. Now, I don’t feel reperations are necessary, becase none of the African Americans today had to deal with slavery, but affirmative action is necessary. Because of the racial inequality that is quite apparent in the U.S. (when minorities net income is a little more than half of that of caucasians)I think it should be more than clear that affirmative action is necessary.
Lastly, you’d be quite surprised by the number of “low income” caucasians that benefit from affirmative action. Because diversity is being preached so heavily at majority white universities, its also being preached at HBCU’s.
Affirmative action is ridiculous at best. Making a decision based on race is wrong/racist plain and simple. You say affirmative action is neccessary to create equality. So then when are things equal? Is there some great machine that beeps when all is right? What happens if it goes the other way? Do we treat it like a leveling scale, pulling here and putting there to keep things even? No, we do what we have been doing. We educate and we inform. If you want to look at statistics, look at percentage of college gradutes among all ethnicities and I feel you will start to realize its not the system or “the man” holding anyone back yet lack of self application. Its time to stop looking for handouts or easy passes and start doing what americans are suppose to do..work hard and acheive your dreams. I paid for my own college I worked two jobs to get ahead, I watched my mother work three jobs to provide for us. In today’s society equal opportunity is alive and thriving if you are willing to work for it.