Affirmative Action makes ensures that our schools, workplaces, and other organizations reflect the same diversity that exists in our communities. It helps to prevent exclusion based upon race or sex. Historically, women and minorities have been faced with obstacles when trying to get a foot in the door for their education or professional development. In order to ensure an assorted student body and a diverse workplace, policies that balance out these obstacles are still deeply essential.
The public controversy over affirmative action has come in two different surges[Aff01]. The first surge represented a period of passionate debate that began in the early 1970s and tapered off after 1980 that was based upon disparity of opportunities for both women and minorities. This is because in the beginning Affirmative Action was as much about employment opportunities as it was about college admissions. The second demonstrating a reappearance of debate in the 1990s leading up to the Supreme Court's decision in the summer of 2003 substantiating certain kinds of Affirmative Action[Alg03]. The second surge represents a dispute about race and ethnicity as it relates to college admissions. In this situation, there is not a need for women to receive any preference, but there is for minorities. .
In a time when it is en vogue to push the issue of cultural diversity, many people feel that they are unjustly being excluded because they are not a racial minority. Because of this fact, it has become more of a racial issue than anything else. This second surge of the Affirmative Action push continues to this day, and there has been a considerable of amount of racial tension that has fermented because of it. Despite the racial tensions that can be accredited to Affirmative Action, the positive effects it has added to minority communities as well as the betterment of women's professional opportunities cannot be argued.
