Essay on Affirmative Action

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Affirmative action is a policy that most Americans are aware and familiar with. In a nutshell, affirmative action allows minorities (blacks, Latinos, women among a few) to have a better chance at success. The intent of affirmative action is to help these persons achieve higher learning and also to get better jobs. However noble the original intent of affirmative action, it has come up against some fierce opposition in the past few years as well as in the past. Affirmative action is a huge part of American society and is addressed by many important government officials. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said he is for it (affirmative action) if it means, remedying proven past discrimination against individuals. But he also added: If affirmative action means quotas, set-asides and other preferences that favor individuals simply because they happen to belong to certain groups, then that s where I draw the line. Our current president Bill Clinton acknowledged that many believed that affirmative action always amounts to group preferences over individual merit, and that it demeans those who benefit from it and discriminates against those who are not helped by it. These views on affirmative action have been voiced since the starting line of this policy. In announcing affirmative action in 1965 Lyndon Johnson said, You do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race and then say, You are free to compete with all the others, and still justly believe you have been completely fair. Most persons opposed to what affirmative action is, aren t suggesting doing away with it. Mend it, don t end it is the latest slogan used by defenders of affirmative action from Jesse Jackson to Bill Clinton according to Thomas Sowell author of Drive a stake through it an article on affirmative action. In her essay. Reclaiming the Vision: What Should We Do After Affirmative Action? Constance Horner suggests that instead of phasing out affirmative action, legislators should instead examine the reasons for discontent with the affirmative action policies and then work to create sound replacement policies. Constance Horner defines affirmative action as a, moral vision of a racially integrated society aspiring to equal justice and equal opportunity for black Americans. Horner, in her essay, goes on to explain what, in her opinion, must be done to save affirmative action from disintegration in America. According to Horner America, since the Civil War, has been working towards a vision of a just and integrated society hence the Civil Rights movement of the 1970 s and most blacks see affirmative action as a national commitment to their advancement. However there is little question, in Horner s mind, that affirmative action will be modified, phased out, or even terminated. Much opposition to affirmative action comes from a generalized hostility (white male rage) stemming from low wage growth and job loss or from the flaring up of a permanent racism that can never be fully repressed . Horner says that these explanations fail as full explanation. The moral vision of affirmative action was to create a nondiscriminatory, integrated society . Horner says that the society mean to integrate now separated by race. Through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Directive 15, billions of dollars are set aside for blacks, women and any other minority said to be socially and economically disadvantaged . Persons counted by census under the OMB Directive are asked to fill out a box to identify themselves racially as black, white etc. The government, by doing this, is : Ironically, and much to the point of the country s discontent with the governments affirmative action structures, the use of racial categorization is imposing a powerful set of incentives for those receiving benefits to remain distinctly in those catagories. In Horner s opinion the government is encouraging those who are multi-racial to lean towards...