Since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s, affirmative action has been a popular subject of debate in the United States. Political, economic, and educational institutions have all been pressured to both suppress and conform to the policies of equality among the people within their institutions. Those in favor of affirmative action base much of their argument on the history and statistics of diversity and equality within the United States. Opponents of affirmative action often present arguments about the lowering of standards in the aforementioned organizations. This paper will present the arguments for affirmative action, as well as discuss the lowering of standards within institutions that arise from partaking in affirmative action.

Affirmative action was created as a way for the dominant culture to make amends for the 300 plus years of official discrimination in the United States (Quinn, 2002). Making amends, however, is not an easy task and comes with much criticism. Although, according to Quinn (2002), the criticism is unnecessary because “if done right, affirmative action does not hurt anyone because the job or position goes to the most qualified appli

Quinn (2002) disagrees with these individuals, citing that “affirmative action is still needed, there is still racism. It is only more subtle because opponents of affirmative action have been successful at portraying those thoughts.” The truth is that “for decades black unemployment has been about twice that of white unemployment” (Feagin, 258). Without affirmative action policies, civil rights laws would be the political means of promoting equality. However, civil rights laws are hard to prove, usually small in number, and do not scare employers into enforcing the laws. With only civil rights laws and no affirmative action programs, the status quo would be frozen. Freezing the status quo will make equality stand still, not get better (Quinn, 2002). There has been research that “suggests that the gains that have been made by affirmative action would be reversed if affirmative action was dismantled” (Konrad, 443). For example, in California when an affirmative action policy was dropped at a law school, admission of African Americans to the law school plummeted (Konrad, 443). That clearly shows the need for affirmative action programs.

At Brown University, for example, “administration took action to ensure that the percentage of qualified Asian American applicants would not fall below the percentage of qualified non-Asian applicants admitted” (Feagin, 450). The problem with this statement is similar to that of another university’s policy. At the other university, “administration promised a 20 percent minority-student enrollment in a state where the percentages of minority high school graduates is only 16 to 17 percent (Glazer, 60). So, in order to make their goal, students would be brought to the university who “could not perform at a minimal level” (Glazer, 60). When speaking about lowering standards through the use of affirmative action, all minority groups are included. However, the majority of the support deals with African Americans.

According to Peeks (2002), affirmative action helps the middle class the most. Quinn (2002) agrees, stating that “affirmative action only helps qualified people, most of who are in the middle class.” Quinn (2002) also believes that there tends to be a large percentage of minorities in the lower middle class, so affirmative action does greatly aid minority groups. When looking at hiring employees who are equally qualified, Quinn (2002) argues that cultural experien

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