Today, these quotas have long since been banned, but some argue that special considerations toward minorities are still apparent and disrupt their rights for equal opportunity. On the one hand, they argue that qualifications should be based on merit rather than race or gender, and that it implements reverse discrimination. One the other hand, those who support the concept of Affirmative Action insist that equal opportunity is reached by helping those races faced with disadvantages and that it compensates for discrimination in the past. My own view is that special consideration should not be given to minorities because it is contradictory in their intent to create equal opportunity, therefore increasing racial tensions instead of promoting it. By protecting and giving preference to minorities, Affirmative Action unwarily discriminates against the majority, therefore contradicting its own intent for equal opportunity.
So, even though they took a step forward in equality outside of the south, it didn’t really help that much as they couldn’t do much with the vote because of the attitudes shown towards blacks from whites. This also links to segregation shown outside the south, even though it was no longer the law. The Second World War was not a turning point for African Americans because even though segregation was not a law in the states outside the south, they still suffered with De Facto segregation. This happened in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and Detroit. The black population of such cities was concentrated in ghetto areas, where homes and schools for blacks were inferior to those for whites.
The government have to govern to the national interest rather than smaller sections of the community with a particularly large voice, in that sense these views can often be outnumbered by national beliefs yet a louder voice allows them to be implemented against the majority which can only be considered a disadvantage as it allows for sometimes unpopular and extreme beliefs to be taken into consideration when the ‘national interest’ would not wish them to be. In defence we can say that they act on behalf of minority interests such as racial minorities and how they're treated, it cannot be argued they do not deserve equal rights and so groups like the Civil Rights Movement in America was a benefit to democracy
Diversity works to change the culture of that organization. Diversity realizes the value in a mixture of varying cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. So, instead of accomplishing the diversity of college students admitted, it is acting as reverse discrimination. What is affirmative action though; it is the practice, which emerged in the 1960s as a result of efforts by the civil rights movement to get America to honor its original contract, that "all (people)are created equal." This process is done usually by institutions of giving preference to racial minorities or women when hiring, giving awards, or deciding whom to admit.
The northern parts of the United States accepted African Americans, and many try to escape to the north to try to get employed and leave the racial segregation in the south. The south had state laws that prevented African Americans from doing what they believe are right. (265, packet) Even though it was said that, African Americans are equal to whites under the constitution, as long as part of the United States still have the segregation going on, then the African Americans do not have rights in the whole country. This was a huge obstacle to stop the racism and try to fit them into the society to live with whites. Women were part of the minorities along with the blacks because of the way they were treated.
Even when women’s crimes are reported they’re less likely to be prosecuted or be let off lightly. Feminists are also critical of the official statistics because they hide the true figure of domestic abuse and rape, i.e. it may not be reported by the victim or taken seriously by the police. Traditionally sociology ignored female crime seeing it as petty and not a social problem. This is further highlighted by the fact that in previous outdated textbooks there were no trace of female
There are a certain aspects of Gillborn report that I believe to be questionable. Such as what is his reasoning behind simply excluding certain minority groups in his explanation of educational attainment differences due to race. Gillborn compares the educational of white British with the lowest performing race group of black Caribbean’s students which indicates a huge difference leading to white supremacy in the educational attainment level however Gillborn does not include the likes of Chinese, Pakistani and Indian students that tend to reach higher levels of education than their white British counterparts. His lack of inclusion could lead to misinterpretations of these findings. Indian and Chinese ethnic groups outperform all ethnic groups in student populations (Hill 2009).
In order to lessen the problem of racial tension in America it is crucial for one to recognize the similarities between minorities and non-minorities. In the essay "What White Publishers Won't Print" Zora Neale Hurston claims that the white majority is not interested in the common lives of the minority population. She asserts that this lack of interest by the majority heightens the racial tension in America. To overcome racial tension in America, these stereotypes of minorities can only be replaced by truly understanding how much the white majority has in common with their minority members of society. Although some will argue that there are no similarities present when comparing minorities to the white majority, many of these people do not want to believe that minorities live a normal life just like the majority population.
Even those who view the inherent inequalities of the American system, however, and argue that minorities are in some need of institutionalized help to overcome systemic problems also see the policies Affirmative Action as more of a hindrance than a help. This essay will argue that while certainly biases and inequalities exist in American society, and that members of minority populations are in need of some type of assistance in education and job placement
A lot of the states’ laws had to be overcome in order for the act to become effective such as Jim Crow laws. These laws made African Americans feel as though they were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow laws prevents blacks from voting due to illiteracy, social class, and/or poverty. It did take some muscle from the federal government, the attorney general’s office and executive orders from the president to make sure civil right laws were enacted. But it was all worth it.