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All Just about DivorceThe Affirmative Action Debate
by:
Peter Kennedy
Affirmative action is one of the most arguable political issues facing America. Most often, affirmative action assists deprived groups by up placement in higher education and employment, and the term is most often formed as a program to improve the standing of African Americans. Folk take several stances on the issue, supporting their opinions with various justifications, such as the need for equality and natural competition. Though it was created to help advance the position of deprived peoples, several view affirmative action as an unfair, and even as prejudicial, force in our society.
Institutionalized in 1965 by the Johnson administration, Executive Order 11246 required that federal contractors "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Vote Rights Act, several during Johnson’s tenure, helped to ensure the equal treatment of African Americans in the Twentieth century.
While the Johnson administration institutionalized affirmative action, the struggle for equality really began a century earlier with the passage of important legislation. In the late Decade and early 1870s, the 13th, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments severally
abolished slavery, bonded African Americans citizenship and vote rights. The 1866 Civil Rights Act helped to ensure property rights for African Americans. However, in 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court Case even
segregation, declaring that African Americans could be “separate but equal,” goad the rise of damaging and racist Jim Crow laws. The eventful 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education upset Plessy v. Ferguson and helped to undermine segregation, eventually dismantlement the mostly divided U.S. society.
Affirmative action was formed to provide equal advantages to all peoples, and to address past governmental injustices by providing keep for groups that have been historically discriminated against. Galore folk would-be argue that it is our government’s prime responsibility to correct inequities and to create a much just society.
Nevertheless, galore take the view that affirmative action is much of a patch than a cure-all. Opponents of affirmative action argue that affirmative action shares the same intention as the conception of slavery reparations: it punishes the majority for the misdeeds of earlier generations. Further, piece affirmative action may seem to do society much egalitarian, its critics argue that the policies are anti-meritocratic and are, actually, a manifestation of “reverse-racism.”
The affirmative action debate lends itself to several important questions: Makes the government have a responsibility to correct societal inequities? Makes affirmative action accomplish its objective of creating a much just society, or is it just “reverse-racism”?
Just about the author:
OpineTree is a web log website that encourages debate on today’s most arguable political topics, including abortion, affirmative action, cloning, the death penalty, euthanasia, gay marriage, gun control, health care, societal security, stem cells, as well as another debate topics. Visit http://www.opinetree.com/affirmativeaction.htmlto join the affirmative action debate.
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