Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Affirmative Action
We learned a bit of Affirmative Action in class as we were learning of some positive and negative actions that affected Civil Rights. This idea/policy still exists today and is also still a debate. The idea was thought of to stop racism on disadvantaged groups, but some believed it to be reverse racism. For example, if a person needed a gardener and was going to give the job to either a Latino or a White person, because of this idea, they would give the job to the Latino. Then the White man would feel discriminated against because he was White. Do you think Affirmative Action is helping to stop racism or is it encouraging racism and discrimination against White people?
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I feel that in a certain way it is both. If they are giving spots to other races over whites simply to fill a certain quota so that their school looks good, then yes it is encouraging discrimination against whites. What I hope they are doing is giving the student enrollment based on their qualifications. In my opinion they should not even know your ethnicity or maybe even gender when viewing your transcripts
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Nick's comment ^ Personally, I believe that ethnicity honestly should not matter. I believe it has no significance whatsoever being recorded on our student transcripts besides perhaps identifying student identity but besides that, does it truly carry any type significance? These are all questions we should ask ourselves.
ReplyDeletePart of the basis of affirmative action is righting historical wrongs, rather than trying to counteract racism today. The idea is that because certain groups used to be more discriminated against, they are now living in bad neighborhoods with little money. Because of their dire financial situation, many people feel they never got a chance to improve their own lives through education. Affirmative action (which only applies to higher educational institutions) gives admittance advantages to Native Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans, and a few other groups while giving disadvantages to Caucasians, Asian Americans, and Indians. I personally believe that ethnicity should not matter and that everyone should be judged by their own individual merits.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe this is the right way to solve discrimination, in a way they want to do good by helping others feel better. But at the same time, using Mariana's example, by giving the job to the Latino, you are discriminating a White person. This leads back again to discrimination, just a different race.
ReplyDeleteAffirmative Action is so controversial and it's hard to know whether it helps or hurts the discrimination different races face in society. I agree with Nick and Andrea in that it is both. When choosing people for job positions, one should focus on their qualifications and educational background, not their race or ethnicity. However, I do believe that having diversity within schools or offices is a great thing to have and it gives people more knowledge and understanding of different racial backgrounds. But I strongly believe in equality for all, so choosing someone for a job or accepting them into a school for their race is wrong. Everyone should have an equal chance and should be chosen based on their qualifications.
ReplyDeleteI feel the only if the goal is to stop racism, wouldn't affirmative action only be encouraging it? (due to it being reverse racism) However if we wanted to actually reach a goal of eliminating racism wouldn't the best way to do that be to eliminate all forms of racism and just start from scratch treating everyone as equals and giving no one special privileges, even if some groups were mistreated in the past.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Americans make too many judgements based on race and skin color. If we were able to put the cultural and skin color difference aside, we would be able to see that everyone has the same capability of going to colllege, getting a CEO job, and also getting in trouble with the law. White supremacy hasn't gone away -- while it has improved over the years, police brutality is just a skewed effect of white supremecists taking out their anger on people who they believe "ruined our country". The non-rascists outnumber the rascists, but the minority is still able to control many communities because the majority does not do anything about it because of the beliefs that we Americans still hold in our heads.
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