Affirmative Action And Racial Tension Essay

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Affirmative action. What was its purpose in the first place, and do we really need it now in the liberal super sensitive nineties? It began in an era when minorities were greatly under represented in universities and respectable professions. Unless one was racist, most agreed with the need of affirmative action in college admissions and in the workplace. Society needed an active law that enforced equality during a period when civil rights bills were only effective in ink. With so much of America+s work force spawned from integrated schools now, some may question whether racism really is the problem anymore, and many college students might answer yes. They see it on college campuses today, and they are not sure why. Subconscious prejudices, self-segregation, political correctness, reverse discrimination, and ignorance all wade in the pool of opinions surrounding affirmative action and racial animosity. With racial tensions ever present in this country, one might quest!

ion whether the problems can be solved by affirmative action.

Some feel that affirmative action in universities is the answer to the end of racism and inequality. If more black students get into and graduate from good colleges, more of them will go on to even out the lopsided numbers in the work force. Prejudice secretly slips through everyone+s thoughts. Or so Barbara Ehrenreich believes when she writes of a quiet, subliminal prejudice that is caused by statistics that prove the fewer numbers of blacks in high profile jobs. When we see ninety percent of leadership roles in the corporate world held by white men, we begin to doubt other+s competence in that field. With so many minorities in menial roles, people begin to believe the white man is best for the top jobs; he knows them well(114). But with positive affirmative action policies at work, people should begin to recognize that minorities are just as good or better in the typical white man+s job. Ehrenreich believes affirmative action should guarantee that the best person regardless of race gets the job or gets into the school until it is all so evened out that our subconscious doesn+t put competence and color in the same boat(114). The subliminal prejudices she speaks of may also be stirred by newspaper headlines that feed our emotions and actions. Twenty-nine out of thirty UA students feel the media influences the subconscious(Martin). When blacks read sometimes false statistics about their failing race in periodicals, it builds anger and animosity towards whites(Irvine and Goulden 78). The media implies that they are still not going to overcome the white man at the rate they are going. They subliminally become prejudice of white people, and in effect take violent actions sometimes building emotions that lead to things like the L.A. riots. With our surroundings and media creating images of inequality, affirmative action seems a necessity. It will provide a m!

ore positive goal for black students. Affirmative action might not create racial unity even if we do reach the anticipated equal work world we and Ehrenreich dream of though. The evidence is on the college campuses today. Though numbers are not greatly equal, minorities are a big part of university life. In this so-called integrated setting, one might notice that even the equal self-segregate. The great question all white people ask is why do the black people all sit together when dining. Clarence Page points out that whites sit separately as well, but no one questions them(258). Page observes a U.S. News & World Report survey saying that 53 percent of blacks at large schools found whites |hostile and aloof.X At the same time, 33 percent of whites said they were physically afraid of black students(262). Is plain ignorance on both races+ parts the answer to the dining question? Affirmative action brings the diversity, but are the diverse educated enough about one another. A simple answer may not be a con!

flict between races, but a conflict between interests. People are guilty of not understanding one another in their own races, but all of this isolating is causing unnecessary divides on campus. It seems some are bitter towards white people still because of the past and its effects. The effects of this self-segregation may be greater than some think, though. |It+s suicidal economically to become so bitter that we isolate ourselves from others,X Hugh B. Price writes(Robinson and Tidwell 197). Affirmative action is useless if it causes such isolation among students.

When some believe affirmative action to be failing, they begin to turn to political correctness as the solution to inequality. Political correctness seems to cause more sequestering though. It plagues college students too afraid to speak for fear of being accused of as racist. When students are unable to express themselves freely...

Ehrenreich, Barbara. |Planet of the White Guys.X Time 13 March 1995:114.
Irvine, Reed, and Joseph C Goulden. |The Blame Whitey+ Media.X USA Today Magazine January 1994: 78+.
Landes, Alison, et al. Minorities - A Changing Role in America. Wylie, Texas: Information Plus, 1994. 93-111.
Martin, Anna. Student Survey. 30 October 1996.
Page, Clarence. |We, the Indigestibles: The Campus Culture Wars.X Showing my Color: Impolite Essays on Race and Identity. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. 257-282.
Price, Hugh B. |The Black Middle Class: Past, Present, Future.X The State of Black America 1995. Eds. Paulette J. Robinson, and Billy J. Tidwell. New York: National Urban League, 1995. 181-197.
Zuckerman, Mortimer B. |The Professoriate of Fear.X US News & World Report 29 July 1991: 64.
|Going, Going ...X National Review 29 July 1996: 12. |Thumbs Down.X The Economist 30 March 1996: 30+. You should cite this paper as follows:

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