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Affirmative Action has increasingly become the subject of debate and tension in American society. However, the debate has become entangled in silly arguments of equality of opportunity versus the equality of results. “The purpose of Affirmative Action is not simply to avow good intentions but to register results (Cousens 126).” On one side, however, there are the con-Affirmative Action types who raise ethical and moral issues over the use of such a system; while on the other side there are those who support the system, but use race as a privilege. The participants in this debate have over examined the ethical and moral issues that affirmative action raises while forgetting to scrutinize the system that has created the need for them. All too often, Affirmative Action is looked upon as the cure for the virulent disease of racial discrimination. The program works as it should by allowing for groups of a greater equality of opportunity to further advance themselves by bypassing inequalities that impede their overall effectiveness. Affirmative Action is a temporary, partial, and flawed remedy for past and continuing discrimination against historically marginalized and disenfranchised groups in American society (Hacker 85).

The biggest complaint surrounding Affirmative Action policies aimed at helping Black Americans is that they “violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution and the Civil Rights laws (Greenberg 100).” Those who are against Affirmative Action policies claim that “these programs distort what is already a clear area and bequeath preferred treatment upon minorities because of the color of their skin (Hacker 25).” It wasn’t until 1954, when the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown versus Board of Education that Blacks and minorities were legally pushed to the dirty slums of society. The Brown versus Board of Education decision removed legal restraints that had so long kept Blacks...