Affirmatve Action

Affirmative action. What was its purpose in the first place, and do we really need it now in the liberal super sensitive nineties? It began in an era when minorities were greatly under represented in universities and respectable professions. Unless one was racist, most agreed with the need of affirmative action in college admissions and in the workplace. Society needed an active law that enforced equality during a period when civil rights bills were only effective in ink. With so much of America¹s work force spawned from integrated schools now, some may question whether racism really is the problem anymore, and many college students might answer yes. They see it on college campuses today, and they are not sure why. Subconscious prejudices, self-segregation, political correctness, reverse discrimination, and ignorance all wade in the pool of opinions surrounding affirmative action and racial animosity. With racial tensions ever present in this country, one might question whether the problems can be solved by affirmative action.

Some feel that affirmative action in universities is the answer to the end of racism and inequality. If more black students get into and graduate from good

There are also those who believe affirmative action has some of the most negative effects. Irvine and Goulden quote Booker T. Washington at the closing of their article as saying, ³No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced regardless of his own merits or efforts²(81). These writers feel affirmative action is a ³well-meant folly² that can only encourage harmful outcomes because it does not teach blacks to believe in hard work and ability; rather, it rewards them for being black(81). If black students go to a university where their scores are lower than that of the white students, they may not excel as much. There are greater drop out rates with students going to a university too difficult for them. More than 70 percent of black students at UC Berkeley fail to graduate, and most believe that this is only because they have been mismatched with the wrong school for their standards(Irvine a!

flict between races, but a conflict between interests. People are guilty of not understanding one another in their own races, but all of this isolating is causing unnecessary divides on campus. It seems some are bitter towards white people still because of the past and its effects. The effects of this self-segregation may be greater than some think, though. ³It¹s suicidal economically to become so bitter that we isolate ourselves from others,² Hugh B. Price writes(Robinson and Tidwell 197). Affirmative action is useless if it causes such isolation among students.

Ehrenreich believes affirmative action should guarantee that the best person regardless of race gets the job or gets into the school until it is all so evened out that our subconscious doesn¹t put competence and color in the same boat(114). The subliminal prejudices she speaks of may also be stirred by newspaper headlines that feed our emotions and actions. Twenty-nine out of thirty UA students feel the media influences the subconscious(Martin). When blacks read sometimes false statistics about their failing race in periodicals, it builds anger and animosity towards whites(Irvine and Goulden 78). The media implies that they are still not going to overcome the white man at the rate they are going. They subliminally become prejudice of white people, and in effect take violent actions sometimes building emotions that lead to things like the L.A. riots. W

Some topics in this essay:
Barbara Ehrenreich, Hugh Price, UC Berkeley, Tension Affirmative, University Texas, World Report, Booker Washington, affirmative action, Clarence Page, black students, white students, political correctness, black failure, college campuses, ua students, white people, reverse discrimination, Irvine Goulden, affirmative action policies, college students, believe affirmative action, feel affirmative action, affirmative action racial, thirty ua students,