Affirmative Action / Drug War

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Date: 12 March 2011
Affirmative Action / Drug War
Assignment 1
Affirmative Action
The term affirmative action has been used to mean steps that have been taken to increase the representation of minorities in different areas, like education and employment, from which the minorities have been historically excluded. When such like steps involve preferential recruitment, then the issue of affirmative action generates a lot of controversies. This is based on the easy Not color Blind; Just Blind by Marshall and Katzebach. The two says that “the term “Affirmative action” was officially used in 1961 when President Kennedy strengthened an existing executive order prohibiting racial discrimination by government contractors in their employment practices.”(13) The reason for making such like statement was to increase the participation of minorities particularly blacks who were discriminated from every contract and every desirable institution of the society. In most places at that time, the blacks were not allowed to enter, for instance, they would not enter restaurants, hotels or even library parts. Diversity din campuses improve the learning operations for everybody. The future of different nations relays upon individuals who have gone through a diverse training system to gain wider exposure. This essay analyses the effects that affirmative action would have on the student, faculty as well as staff, faculty and staff.
There are different ways through which affirmative actions programs can be used to ensure diversity in campuses. For instance in the U.S, only a few black individuals were allowed to enter public law schools in both California and Texas. There have been cases showing that affirmative action is an unfair program to the whites; however fair for diversity in campuses. In the essay Not Color Blind: Just Blind, the authors Burke and Katzenbach says: “In 1989, the Piscataway school board, faced with the need to lay off a single teacher, chose to lay off a white while retaining an African American of equal seniority and qualification.” (Burke and Katzenbach, 11) The reason that led the board to make such like a decision is because they were according to the affirmative action policy as a decisive factor. Affirmative action was intended to level the racial playing field and give minorities chances in the workplace and the classroom that they would not have received in the absence of affirmative action. However, the minorities have had more opportunities. In so doing, diversity is attained in campuses; as the whites who appear to be majority are retrenched while the blacks who are minority are retained. On the other hand, the program is much painful to those fell as victims. For instance according to the essay, Affirmative action is it fair, the author Terry explains that, “the effort to regulate on the basis of race can have unanticipated consequence�...