Affirmative Action Essay - 4934 Words

Affirmative Action The Webster dictionary defines affirmative action as an â€Å"active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This paper will discuss the history of affirmative action and its effects on education and the work force in our society. I will argue why affirmative action is necessary for minorities to gain equal opportunities educationally and economically and how affirmative action is morally required as reparation for past discrimination. I will also discuss why many people believe that affirmative action is a step in the wrong direction and point out several arguments as to why we should get rid of affirmative action and try to validate their claims. Affirmative†¦show more content†¦The history of the United States is infested with past discrimination, oppression, and hostility toward certain minority groups, especially African Americans, and the Government needed to formulate a plot that would reconcile the pa st. Although affirmative action has its flaws, it has been the best strategy to make reparations for the hundreds of years that colored people were deemed inferior to white people. My belief is that had we not discriminated so inhumanely towards these groups of people they would not be considered â€Å"inferior† by many in modern times. In much of the history of the United States, blacks were not given the opportunity to compete for things such as job availability, wages, and housing, and so there was not fair competition between the races. This made it possible for a rapid advancement of the white population, while minority groups were forced to do the best they could with the limited amount of resources that were available to them. A fair starting point in the race of competition for opportunities was clearly lacking, and this discrepancy in competition is what affirmative action is trying to amend in the modern world. Lyndon B. Johnson was the first president to implement some sort of affirmative action program in 1965, where he declared that government contracted jobs must take into consideration ethnic backgrounds when hiring, and it also gaveShow MoreRelatedThe Affirmative Of Affirmative Action Essay1389 Words   |  6 Pages Many affirmative action efforts have been made since the end of the Civil War in order to remedy the results of hundreds of years of slavery, segregation and denial of opportunity for groups that face discrimination. 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