Ethics and College: Affirmative Action - Research Paper Example

Furthermore, it pertains to what is acceptable and should be done. Hence one can easily know things that are ethical; meaning right, and those that are unethical or wrong. A lot of discussion and debate have been raised concerning affirmative action in college admissions. Many have been in support of the affirmative action in colleges claiming that it equally benefits the non-minority students. Moreover, education is the key channel to most opportunities. Therefore, discrimination in education has to be fought through affirmative action in order to raise the number of minority students in colleges.

Nevertheless, colleges have to create two separate pools of admissions; one for the qualified and able students and another for minorities and financially disadvantaged students. Consequently, affirmative action in college admissions results in a well diverse student fraternity, who get to interact with each other. As a result, students who graduate are able to cope with people from different ethnic backgrounds. When evaluating the applicants to the universities, use of affirmative action has always had opponents and supporters.

The opponents argue that affirmative action is totally unethical and has negative effects in the society. On the other hand, the supporters argue that affirmative action is ethical. . The reason advanced is that minority professionals gained their qualifications out of preferential treatment accorded to them by the education systems. It is further argued that, the non-majority are unfairly subjected to punishment resulting from mistakes by their forefathers. It is also claimed that 16 out of 100 positions of students joining campus are being left out for the minority.

Consequently begging the question; what happens to the other brighter white students who should have occupied those positions? (Taylor 113) Affirmative action strongly defies the ethic of a hardworking American. A good example is the American Japanese, and Jews who never advocated for affirmative action. This is despite the fact that they are part of the minority but eventually emerged successful in America. This was through personal responsibility, hard work and investing smartly. That is what the black minority should embrace instead of affirmative action.

On a further note, affirmative action defies the ethic of merit. For example, women should not be given quotas for job opportunities. Instead, they should compete for such positions. When a woman is academically qualified, she should be given the job. This ensures that qualified individual occupies various positions rather than providing jobs for the unqualified people for the sake of equality. In a nutshell, it is very unjust to judge recruits on anything other than their merits ( Tomasson, Faye & Herzberger 242).

Recently, universities, political leaders and businesses argued that, affirmative action has become outdated and has become useless. They stated clearly that it was time the society becomes colorblind since affirmative action gave the minority an upper hand in university intakes and job contracts. Hence, it gives the