Affirmative Action

Paper Summary:

This paper evaluates affirmative action which has developed as a way of providing opportunity to individuals from previously excluded groups. It provides arguments for and against the so called preferential treatment that elevates minority candidates above other applicants in order to achieve racial or gender balance. It shows how supporters see it as a way of making up for past discrimination such as slavery and its consequences for blacks, racial discrimination for other minorities and gender discrimination for women, while opponents see it as a new form of discrimination, this time directed at a different group.

From the Paper:

"Another argument in support of affirmative action holds that this is a way of creating racial and gender equity in the future by allowing us to overcome tensions that may exist between groups simply because one group has always been in positions of power while the other has always been subordinate. Education is another way of achieving this, but even within an educational institution, there is a need for the promotion of minorities to show that they can lead:
It's painfully obvious that this nation and this world cannot allow white students to go through higher education without interacting with Blacks in authoritative positions. It is equally clear that predominantly Black colleges cannot accommodate the number of Black students who want and need an education (Giovanni 19)."

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