ARE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION LAWS FAIR?

Are Affirmative Action laws fair?

Are Affirmative Action laws fair?

Part 1

Thesis

It cannot be denied that America's history is full of mistreatment of minority individuals. Women did not have a chance to vote for nearly a century and many minorities were denied access to schools and employment positions solely based on their race and ethnicity.

Summary

Affirmative action was really implemented with the intention of ensuring that employers, colleges and universities took into account race and gender when selecting employees and students. Affirmative action calls for minorities and women to be given special consideration in employment, education and contracting decisions.

There is a great deal of politics involved in affirmative action laws. Politically, republicans are usually opposed to affirmative action, while democrats are in favor of keeping it. Those who are in favor of the affirmative action policy are of the opinion in view of past discriminations and injustice towards minorities, there must be a system to even the scale. This system took on the form of affirmative action, allowing privileged access for minorities into schools and workplaces. (Alexander, 2007).

There is, however, growing very opposition towards affirmative action and with it a strong question of ethics. The United States of America has a moral and ethical code which prohibits that any form of public discrimination. They assert that this program divides society into two groups based on ethnicity; thereby completely defying the effort to have a color-blind America, where society does not see ethnicity or a color difference in any person. There are many who argue that affirmative action is, in fact, reverse discrimination. (Alexander, 2007).

This topic of reverse discrimination applies to all aspects of affirmative action which allow a minority individual to get a position or receive an opportunity over an equally or overly qualified majority individual. The actions used by affirmative action which qualify as reverse discrimination basically undermine the values for which the system was created and leave society with an unbalanced plate of opportunities, this time favoring the minority.

Part 2

Implementation of affirmative action poses a clear and puzzling contradiction. In order to compensate for one group's history of discrimination, the government proposes to take away the freedom of others. This includes discriminating against prospective applicants for jobs or to schools who are immediately put at a mandated disadvantage simply because of their race or gender.

In addition, others, including some members of minority groups, say that affirmative action inevitably creates the impression, both among whites and in the beneficiaries own minds, that they cannot qualify for good jobs and education based on their own merits.

When evaluating the moral value of a system such as affirmative action, one must understand its meaning and what exactly a moral act entails. The application or meaning of morality as it varies with each individual. What one person may regard as being a moral and ethical act, another may see as an immoral or unethical act.

Immanuel Kant, is famous for his moral philosophy and theory of the categorical imperative, which dictates that a person ...