Affirmative Action: Ideals, Ironies, Complexities, Politics, Rhetoric and Values

Paper Summary:

The following essay examines the affirmative action legislation that was created with the intention of offering the values of equal opportunity, racial equality and individual liberty as public policy. The writer examines how the rhetoric and political jargon involved in the implementation often overshadowed or confused the values that originally were intended in the legislation. It is of this writer's opinion that the Declaration of Independence established the idealistic intent of the United States of America to be a place for democratic equality and today Americans are still dealing with the complexities of turning the ideal into the real.

From the Paper:

"Polarization over public policy attempting to legislate values is common. Affirmative action is an especially emotional, value oriented legislative issue. The complexities and ironies involved were present in the roots of American democracy and reverberate into modern times. Rhetoric resonates when affirmative action is the topic under discussion. Words like discrimination, reverse discrimination, preferential treatment, justice, equality, politics of inclusion, quotas, color-blindness fly fast and furiously. The main values under consideration in public policy concerning affirmative action are equal opportunity and civil rights. At it's inception affirmative action legislation was aimed at racial equality centered on the black/white dichotomy. As it evolved affirmative action came to include concern for the civil rights of other American ethnic minorities as well as the equality of civil rights between the sexes. In order to somewhat limit the vastness of the subject, this paper will concentrate on the extensive background of legislative efforts to equalize opportunity for American blacks and the public policy that emerged as efforts to realize non-discriminatory values evolved into what became known as affirmative action."

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