The Continuing Importance of Affirmative Action Essay -- Argumentative

The Continuing Importance of Affirmative Action Affirmative challenge is about to take sort of a beating. Prominent Republicans from Phil Gramm to Pete Wilson to Bob Dole all plan on making the attack on positive action a central plump down of their campaign rhetoric. The Clinton administration, perhaps trying to stem the attack before it begins, recently announced that it would reevaluate the merit of all affirmative action programs. And many of those to the left-hand(a) of Clinton oppose affirmative action--albeit probably for different reasons than those to his right. Considering the overwhelming opposition to affirmative action, it seems improbable that affirmative action would have much to recommend it. Yet this line deserves examination. There are a large number of factors contributing to a given policys favorability it seems unlikely that all aspects of affirmative action, from morality to reality to the gray in between, count as strikes against it. Concerns over fairn ess to white males seem to be at the root of most opposition to affirmative action. This argument is difficult to antipathetic it seems clear that affirmative action does amount, strictly speaking, to reverse discrimination. For some, this fact alone is enough reason to ring the policy death knell. Yet this conclusion seems to me hasty. If affirmative action hurts white males only a little, yet helps minorities and women significantly, then we might well decide to keep affirmative action around, despite its unfairness. Private universities commonly employ policies of preference which are sometimes euphemistically termed development policies. Development means that there is a concerted effort on the part of admissions officers to drive students who come fro... ...(If you are unconvinced of this point, do a bit more(prenominal) reading and thinking.) More than lowering the hiring and admissions standard by which minorities and women are measured, affirmative action works to hamp er pervasive racism. If an employer harbors racist, heterocentrist, or sexist views, then being forced to take a second look at minorities and women may counteract that prejudice. Affirmative action, then, may have less to do with lowering the standard by which minorities and women are measured, and more to do with equalizing opportunities given. That sounds to me like sound policy nonetheless Newt would find difficult to oppose--policies designed to ensure equality of opportunity. For as long as it has been policy, affirmative action has been implemented with an eye towards equalizing opportunity. A more admirable, mainstream ideal is difficult for me to envision.