FREE ESSAY ON AFERMATIVE ACTION

AFERMATIVE ACTION

The idea that different subcategories of humans exist, and that depending on one's point
of view, some subcategories are inherently inferior to others, has been around since
ancient times. This concept eventually gained the label of race in 1789, a zoological
term... generally defined as a subcategory of a species which inherits certain physical
characteristics that distinguish it from other categories of that same species. (Tivnan
181). Although slavery has been by and large eliminated in virtually every part of the
modern world, the concept used to rationalize its implementation, racism, still plagues
most modern cultures. Races that were once enslaved, or are minorities within their
society, are often discriminated against in a variety of ways. This attitude can result
in actions as severe as the Holocaust of World War II, or as minor as a dismissive glance
from a salesman at an uptown department store. 
In America, an active war has been waged on discrimination since minorities and women
rallied for equal rights in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's. In the last 35
years, the American government has made strides toward ending discrimination altogether,
enacting social policies designed to give the downtrodden minorities a leg-up in a
white-dominated society. One such policy, Affirmative Action, generally refers to
programs that give preferential treatment to minority groups based on socioeconomic
status and which try to correct past injustices inflicted upon said groups. This use of
racial criteria to award opportunities in fields like education and employment has
sparked major debates over reverse discrimination and moral obligation in today's
America.
Many claim that blacks in America have a moral claim to compensate them for the paramount
injustice inflicted upon them, slavery (Tivnan 202). Although slavery ended nearly 200
years ago, racism was tolerated and even encouraged by the American government and was
virtually public policy for most of the 20th century (Tivnan 202). Proponents of
affirmative action believe society owes blacks for these past injustices. In addition to
repaying blacks, these policies are socially useful to the whole of society, according to
Ronald Dworkin in his book Why Bakke Has No Case. By helping today's impoverished blacks,
we can attempt to end the vicious cycle of poverty within just a few generations. Parents
assisted by affirmative action will be better able to raise their children, who will be
better educated and therefore receive better jobs without assistance. In some cases, the
color of one's skin can be as important a criteria as their intelligence or experience.
If a black skin will, as a matter of regrettable fact, enable another doctor to do a
different medical job better (e.g. minister to an urban ghetto population), then black
skin ought to be taken as 'merit' as well (Qtd. In Tivnan 206). The fact that black or
white skin enables one to do a job better is not a measure of personal worth, just as
people who can play basketball better because of their height are not inherently superior
to those who cannot. Although affirmative Action does not solve all the problems, or
resolve all the issues, you have to ask yourself: What would society be like without
affirmative action? (Tivnan 211)
Other's argue that you cannot wipe out injustice with another injustice (Tivnan195).
Discriminating against whites is just as wrong as discriminating against blacks. After
all, when a society wants to make things equal, it does not mean reversing the current
situation and trampling the rights of different demographic instead. Whites and blacks
shouldn't be on separate lists in the career world, just as they shouldn't have separate
dining accommodations (Tivnan195). Another point raised is that affirmative action has
been shown to hurt blacks more than it helps them (Tivnan 198). Affirmative action
implies inferiority (Tivnan 198), and although it does give some blacks opportunities
they would otherwise be without, it still propagates racism and racial tension in the
workplace. Preferential treatment...subjects blacks to a midnight of self-doubt, and so
often transforms their advantage into a revolving door. (Tivnan 198). They would prefer a
level playing field, and hate that fellow employees think that they got to their position
not through hard work, but through a government program, even though that may not be the
case (Tivnan 200). Striving to attain diversity, the goal of so many organizations, often
hides the fact that many blacks aren't prepared for these opportunities. According to
Shelby Steele's The Content of Our Character, only 26% of black college students graduate
from college within six years of admission. Although these figures are interesting, they
are totally unrelated to the real victims of affirmative action: millions of poor blacks
in inner-city ghettos who will never go to college and are only hoping for a decent job.
To these blacks outside the mainstream of the American occupational system, these
highbrowed issues are stunningly irrelevant (Qtd. in Tivnan 199). In spite of affirmative
action, more blacks are serving time in prison than a decade ago. It is time for the
successful members of the black community to embrace the black underclass by becoming
community leaders with ideas and visions for the future of our country.
I believe that affirmative action is a noble and well-intentioned program, and that at
one time it may have been the correct policy to uphold, but now The moment for
affirmative action has passed. (Tivnan 200). Although the past injustices inflicted on
blacks are certainly inexcusable, they are not justification for payback in a direct
sense. Anyone directly involved in slavery is long since deceased, and although the
legacy of slavery is alive and well today, we should be helping these impoverished people
because we want to better our nation as a whole. By bringing as many people as possible
above the poverty line, regardless of the color of their skin, we make America a better
place. By increasing the quality of our pathetically under-funded public education
system, and especially by easing cultural pressures on young inner-city blacks to drop
out of school, we can make each generation better prepared to meet the challenges of
today's workplace until a program such as affirmative action would be seen as insulting
by any race.
Bibliography
Tivnan, Edward. The Moral Imagination . New York: Touchstone, 1996.