Affirmative Action

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Pasco-Hernando State College *

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1630

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Philosophy

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Oct 30, 2023

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Ashley 1 Ashley Prof. Nazelrod PHI 1630 1 November 2018 Affirmative Action Debate Essay Merriam Webster defines equality as the state of being equal. Today, equality tends be tied to the terms, opportunity and rights. There is this politicization of equality and what should be done to ensure it. This is what John F. Kennedy was working towards with his Executive Order 19025; he worked towards the very term we call affirmative action[ CITATION Uni19 \l 1033 ]. Affirmative action has been applied to the workplace widely and the very same can be said for the education system, specifically higher education. Though, the action has been politized today to mean agreeing with affirmative action makes you liberal, whereas lying opposed to it makes you conservative. This division has caused the nation to be contested in trying to take action in the name of equality. Affirmative action policies are more than appropriate for higher education admission decisions because not only is it constitutional, but it achieves diversity along with being the morally just thing to do. To begin, many believe that affirmative action cannot be considered constitutional because it practices the use of race in the admissions departments. Those opposed would like to cite the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as their evidence, but what they don’t realize is that the Civil Rights Act was formed so that people (minorities) could not be prohibited from voting, formed in order to prohibit segregation, and formed to prohibit discrimination that would cause someone to be passed up for a job, or lose their job[ CITATION USD16 \l 1033 ]. These were the intentions of the Civil Rights Act, it was not created to stop future generations from trying to right decades of racial discrimination. To clarify, affirmative action is not used to prohibit people from being accepted into schools because of their race. Rather affirmative action is, taking all the students

Ashley 2 with the right qualifications and selecting those who may be at a more disadvantaged position and choosing them to give them an opportunity that they otherwise might not have gotten. To continue, affirmative action policies are a solution to the demographic goal of diversity. First, the reason why so many higher education institutes value diversity is because it is applicable to the real word. The United States is filled to the brim with a diverse population, especially in areas along coastlines where it is easier for people to migrate to. Take Florida for example, in the Tampa area it is filled largely with African Americans, Hispanics and a small percentage of Asians[ CITATION USD18 \l 1033 ]. Second, when the country has diversity, it is important that those seeking a higher education are exposed to it so that they may understand how to treat those different from them. People who have minimal exposure to other people’s cultures tend be insensitive and disrespectful without meaning to because of their lack of exposure. This can be simply fixed if higher education population demographics reflect those of both the area it is in and the future demographics of their soon-be-graduate’s occupations. While affirmative action is not the only way to diversify a campus, it certainly is one of the easier solutions that has well intentions and when instilled correctly, there is no need for alternative ways to diversify a campus. Lastly, affirmative action policies are indeed ethical. To ensure there are no confounding ideas, ethical can be defined as “ conforming to accepted standards of conduct”, [ CITATION Mer19 \l 1033 ] . So, the reason why affirmative action policies are ethical is because it considered an accepted standard of conduct. In 1978, when the Supreme Court had decided the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke court case, they decided that affirmative action is not illegal but had just been conducted inappropriately [CITATION Nat13 \l 1033 ] . In doing such, they had also decided that affirmative action is legal and as the Supreme Law

Ashley 3 of the land it sets the standards of conduct for the country. Not only does affirmative action lie within the lines of accepted conduct but it is also the steps people want to take to right centuries of inequality. Centuries where ignorance plagued the world, and many could not see the unethical dilemma of racism. For many, they hope to create a better world for everyone by ensuring that equality is strived for with policies of affirmative action. In other words, for some people affirmative action is a moral obligation in the name of equality. While other people may disagree with that sentiment of obligation, there is no denying that the policies themselves are ethical in the sense of accepted conduct. To conclude, affirmative action is appropriate for higher education because of its positionality, its ethicality, and its ability to diversify. Higher Education institutes should strive for policies that can diversify because it will make for a better environment for their students. Not to include, that precedent legalized affirmative action so that it may be used to help obtain equality. Together affirmative action can help build the nation if higher education institutes implement them correctly. To use race to help those disadvantaged get accepted in secondary education and not to use race to prohibit people from being accepted. Another way to view affirmative action, is positive discrimination because that is what is affirmative action is.

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Ashley 4 Works Cited Merriam-Webster. Dictionary . n.d. 26 October 2019. <https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/ethical>. National Constitution Center . National Constitution Center . 23 June 2013. 26 October 2019. <https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/affirmative-action-timeline-of-10-major-cases-and- orders>. U.S. Department of Commerce. United States Census Bureau . 2018. 26 October 2019. <vhttps://www.census.gov/quickfacts/tampacityflorida>. U.S. Department of Interior. National Park Service . 22 March 2016. 25 October 2019. <https://www.nps.gov/articles/civil-rights-act.htm>. University of Califormia. UCI . 2019. 25 October 2019. <http://www.oeod.uci.edu/policies/aa_history.php>.