Affirmative Action

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 

 Affirmative action, also known as “positive discrimination” is a policy made by the government designed to help disadvantaged groups find employment, attend universities, and acquire housing. This policy's main factor was to offer a boost to disadvantaged groups and increase the numbers of diversity in all kinds of communities; such as a workplace or educational institutions, etc.  Basically, it's a way of taking positive steps to increase the representation of disadvantaged groups of culture that have been historically excluded. In cases where it involves preferential selection; like the selection solely on the basis of race, ethnicity, or gender. Affirmative action generally promotes disagreement.

In 1961 this policy was brought up by John F. Kennedy’s presidential executive orders that stated; employees have to be treated with fairness regardless of their race. Around the year 1967, this list widened by including gender and religion; the outcome of the policy’s purpose was to promote anti-discrimination and create equal opportunities for the people who used to be oppressed and exposed to discrimination. The main idea was for employers or any institutions to take affirmative action by cutting out racial, gender-based, or religion-based discrimination in correlation to employing that person; But in the wrong run of things, this policy enters a controversial topic when the disadvantaged groups are given preferential treatment. Now the defense of preferential affirmative action has gone about two roads. One of the roads is the legal and administers of the courts; such as the executive and legislatures parts of the government that have made the rules associating affirmative action. The other road was the basis of the public debate, where the exercise of preferential treatment has multiplied the intensity of public opinion.  These two roads often have failed to make a smooth passage causing strong public disagreements that were often not properly secured in an existing legal practice or basis. The basic idea of this is that the policy of pursuing affirmative action is to make up for the disadvantages that have to do with the historical discrimination that has happened. 

Now in my opinion a lot of the pros of this policy may be pros in some aspects, but the majority of these pros lead to some cons. With my research for this specific definition for this term, I found what I find an extremely important point to this. The boost of education for disadvantaged students. It’s known that disadvantaged families usually fall into poverty if they don't have access to higher education or simply can't afford it. This policy provides a grant or some sort of scholarship for these people in order for them to obtain a higher education. By doing this, affirmative action boosts their education while giving them a better chance of a sustainable future. While this sounds like a good thing, many people aren't too happy about this. Disadvantaged students who are offered these boots are often considered an outcome of affirmative action rather than their own work.

So basically, I feel as if some people say that people who have gotten these boosts are using the advantage of taking this opportunity by cheating their way to the top; other than the people who actually worked for what they have. This has been known to cause more discrimination due to people accusing this policy of being unfair. Known as reverse discrimination, this is a notion where instead of other people promoting anti-discrimination, often affirmative action leads to discrimination against non-disadvantaged groups. While talented individuals may not be given the same opportunities because they’re not financially challenged or they don't come from a previously oppressed group. This tends to cause tension and hatred between these two groups, which usually leads to more problems. I feel as if I understand the idea of this act, but systems such as meritocracy, where they encourage institutions such as universities to admit more students specifically based on their race and nationality to create more diversity, seems discriminating as well. Though I found the topic quite interesting to research, I feel as this topic is a controversial topic that will always be up for debate over whether it is a fair evaluation.

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/affirmative-action/

https://aclu.procon.org/questions/does-the-us-need-affirmative-action/

https://highschool.latimes.com/la-canada-high-school/pro-con-should-we-have-affirmative-action/

https://greengarageblog.org/20-principal-pros-and-cons-of-affirmative-action