History of Affirmative Action - Essay Example

?History of Affirmative Action America has always had a highly diverse culture which, coupled with the idealistic vision of an equal society, oftentimes results in a question of how to properly treat the various differences that exist within our society. This was a question that actually predates affirmative action. Looking back in time, the question of slavery in America was one of the pioneer affirmative action situations that existed in our country. While that affirmative action question was resolved through violence and a historical war that changed the social landscape of America, time has shown us that there have been other questions pertaining to social equality over time that have been resolved much more peacefully through the use of affirmative action. That is why I chose to write about affirmative action for this class. I will be presenting a definitive look at the history and time line of affirmative action in our country while also looking into the solutions that our society and political leaders have come up with in order to resolve most of the affirmative action issues of our time. All of the information that I shall present will come from various reputable internet based articles, journals, and websites. The 1960's saw an American society that was perceived to have had a great imbalance when it came to offering equal employment opportunities for minority groups and women in education. A year later, in 1961, President John f. Kennedy initiated moves to help resolve the question of inequality by establishing the President's Committee on Equal Opportunity in order to ensure that all applicants for government positions would be hired based upon their qualifications rather than their race, creed, national origin, or gender. This committee would become the predecessor to the modern Equal Opportunity Commission. (NCSL “Affirmative Action Overview”). It was during the same decade that the American people became far more conscious of the need for the Kennedy termed “affirmative action” plan. Prior to Pres. Kennedy's executive order, there was absolutely no way that a member of the minority groups or a woman would have been able to gain employment in positions that were formerly assigned only to men. That is why the executive order for the president was met with much jubilation during his time. With a stroke of his pen, the president was able to level the employment field for all Americans counteracting “historic discrimination faced by ethnic minorities, women and other underrepresented groups.” (Nittle, Nadra Kareem “What is Affirmative Action?”) With the groundwork now set by President Kennedy, affirmative action policies were not freely issued by his successors, with President Lyndon B. Johnson issuing his own affirmative action orders that allowed for blacks and other minority groups, including women to be allowed the same opportunities for promotions, salary increases, career advancement, school admissions, scholarships, and financial aid that used to be reserved only for the Whites. (Brunner, Borgina & Rowen, Beth “Affirmative Action History”). Basically, this was a government policy that was not meant to last too long. It was a band aid solution to what was perceived to be a temporary problem by the government. For some reason, the movement just continued to gain momentum from the time of Kennedy up to the present. While affirmative action has been able to create a long term. rather than short term solution to the problem of equal employment, there are still other situations that are crying out for more solutions based upon affirmative action. The problem of equality in education has remained one of the major problems for the melting pot of races in this land of dreams and opportunity. Most of our college and university students still find themselves having to deal with new forms of discrimination every single day of their lives. Colleges and universities still face the problem of having to deal with racial preferences when accepting registrants into their various college and university departments. Somehow, schools have always struggles to gain an equal number of students from various backgrounds that would adequately represent the acceptance of affirmative action within their campuses. This, as it turns out, is a problem that plagues even the Ivy League institutions of the American educational institutions. Stanford Law School for one struggles to find a” balance of highly qualified yet diverse students to represent the various cultures, classes, background, work, life experiences skills and interests” (Brest Paul & Oshige, Miranda “Affirmative Action for Whom?) to fill their college campuses. That is probably why Stanford is one of the more notable universities that actually has and supports an affirmative action program as a part of their student admissions screening committee. It is important to note however, that in our modern day society, there are some sectors that choose to believe that affirmative action is not a necessary part of our society anymore. People such as George Will have expressed such sentiments as to express their doubts about “the greater diversity argument’s benefits and the efficacy of affirmative action.” (qtd. in Laferriere) Believing that affirmative action is nothing but a liberal agenda, some of its detractors believe that the movement only serves to hinder the actual growth of the minority students due to what has come to be known as an “academic mismatch” (Laferriere, Elizabeth “Why Affirmative Action is so Important”). The explanation of an academic mismatch, according to Elizabeth Laferriere (“Why Affirmative Action is so Important”) exists when: ... minority students admitted to universities in spite of their lesser academic preparation fall behind. These students are more likely to fail out than their white counterparts, particularly in the sciences, and will self-segregate to what Will deems the “less-demanding classes.” Although admitting students based upon affirmative action causes does pose a problem for the academic institution, its professors, and the students alike, simply doing away with the affirmative action policies will not solve the situation. Affirmative action was set into place precisely because such problems needed to be addressed by the thinking minds of our society. Not to mention the fact that having a highly diverse student body allows for out of the classroom education and experience among students who learn to get along and respect each others differences in the process. In conclusion, one might be more inclined to believe that affirmative action in terms of a band aid solution to a perceived social inequality is not something that is easily resolved. Although President Kennedy offered us the foundation for the solution to the problem of social inequality, the struggle to truly find the balance that will totally eradicate that inequality rages on. That is why affirmative action has become an integral part of our society decision making process and it will continue to be that way for many more decades to come. Word Count = 1120/ 1000 Min. Works Cited Borgina, Brunner & Rowen, Beth. Affirmative Action History. infoplease.com. 2013. Web. 9 Jul. 2013 Retrieved from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/affirmative1.html Brest, Paul & Oshige, Miranda. (1995). Affirmative Action For Whom? . Stanford Law Review. 47 (5), 855-900 Laferriere, Elizabeth. (2011). Why Affirmative Action is Important. Policymic. 2011 .Web. 8 Jul 2013. Retrieved from http://www.policymic.com/articles/2805/why- affirmative-action-is-so-important N.A. (2013). Affirmative Action Overview. National Conference of State Legislatures. Jun. 2013. Web. 6 Jul. 2013. Rtrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/issues- research/educ/affirmative-action-overview.aspx Nittle, Kareem Nedra. (2013). What is Affirmative Action?. about.com. 20130. Web. 3 Jul. 2013. Retrieved from http://racerelations.about.com/od/diversitymatters/g/WhatIsAffirmativeAction.htm Read More