Affirmative-Action Programs
- Initiatives aimed at encouraging diversity in classrooms and workplaces, and increasing opportunities for minorities and women.
People against affirmative-action programs say:
It encourages discrimination against whites and men (so-called reverse discrimination).
It's no longer necessary for diversity in the classroom and workplace.
It takes opportunities away from more qualified applicants.
Support for Affirmative Action Programs
In a 1965 commencement speech at Howard University in Washington, D.C., President Lyndon Johnson discussed the importance of affirmative action for remedying past discrimination against minorities.
"You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, 'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe you have been completely fair," he said. "Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates."
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1964 Civil R...
Lord Dahrendorf Deutsch: Ralf Dahrendorf 2003 Sven...
Affirmative Action PricingLiberals and Democrats, say that race- and gender-conscious policies are the most effective way to encourage equality.
Other Support
Gaps between minorities and whites persist in educational and occupational attainment. Ending affirmative action will only ensure that those disparities remain in place and could even eliminate some of the advances that minorities and women have achieved.
White Advantages
1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area that I can afford and in which I would want to live.
3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I...