Affirmative action is a policy in the United States with its primary purpose to increase opportunities for minorities and women. Affirmative action policy seeks to increase opportunities by favoring minorities and women in the hiring process, promotions, college admissions, and the awarding of government contracts (“Affirmative Action” n. p.). As originally conceived, affirmative action attempted to eliminate discrimination and provide a source of opportunity for those less fortunate. In reality, affirmative action did not eliminate discrimination at all; discrimination was merely reversed. The policy is not only a form of reverse discrimination, and unconstitutional, but it has completely failed to reach its intended goals as well. Many American citizens believe that the abolition, or at least the restructure of affirmative action would be beneficial to the American people.

The fact that the implementation of the affirmative action policy in the United States has resulted in reverse discrimination is clearly evident. First, the affirmative action program contradicts the very principles that the Constitution proclaims to be true. The fundamentals of the Constitution are based u

An example of the ill conceived effects of the affirmative action program developed at The University of California at Berkeley. Throughout the 1980’s the number of black students enrolled at the university increased rapidly due to “double standard admissions.” Interestingly enough, this rapid increase in enrollment of black students did not translate into an increase in black students actually graduating from Berkeley. In 1982 the number of black students at Berkeley was significantly less than the black population in 1985. Despite the fact that the black population grew at Berkeley University, the exact same number of black students graduated (Rinder n. p.). Many of the black students accepted due to the double standard admissions process were either flunking or dropping out of the university. The problem at Berkeley was not that these black students were not intelligent individuals. In fact many of their test scores were well above the national average (Grapes 51-52). The problem at Berkeley was that these students were capable of being successful at different universities, but not qualified enough to be successful at Berkeley. The affirmative action program had placed students with the potential to be very successful at other institutions into an environment where they were incapable of succeeding.

Dr. Thomas Kane from Harvard University best summed up what the affirmative action process has done when he stated, “Racial body count has become more important than actually educating people for success” (qtd. McWhirter 76 ). Dr. Kane states a very frightening reality about our society; appearing to be a racially integrated society has in fact become more important than creating a successful racially integrated society. Equality has been sacrificed, and justice forgotten. The affirmative action policy is a failure by all standards. The affirmative action policy discriminates against the qualified and the capable. The affirmative action policy has not succeeded in reaching any of its original goals. Reform is not the answer. The abolition of the affirmative action program is our only choice. If one day the United States is to be a truly successful racially integrated society, government induced discrimination must stop. The affirmative action policy needs to be ended, and justice restored.

Proponents of the affirmative action poli

Some topics in this essay:
Berkeley University, Harvard University, Results Affirmative, Dr King’s, President Kennedy, Constitution Supporting, Dr Kane, Constitution United, Berkeley Throughout, affirmative action, Opportunity Employment”, affirmative action policy, action policy, black students, affirmative action program, action program, government induced, white males, minorities women, dr martin luther, president kennedy, dr martin, admissions process, martin luther king, president john kennedy,