Affirmative Action - Essay 7

Running head: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Affirmative Action: Is It Still Needed In The United States?

Running head: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Affirmative Action: Is It Still Needed In The United States?

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”- Thomas Jefferson Affirmative action is a program whose purpose is to make sure that equal citizens are treated equally under the law. In today’s society it is important that all people regardless of race or sex are given the equal opportunity in the admissions and job applications processes. Affirmative action was designed to create this equality.
What is Affirmative Action?
Affirmative action is a policy of favoring qualified women and minority candidates over qualified men or nonminority candidates with the immediate goals of outreach, remedying discrimination, or achieving diversity and the ultimate goals of attaining a color-blind (racially just) and a gender-free (sexually just) society (Sterba, 2003). A color-blind society is a society in which race has no more significance than eye color has in most societies. A gender-free society in which sex has no more significance than eye color has in most societies. It is a society in which the traits that ware truly desirable and distributable in society are equally open to both women and men. Alternatively, the ultimate goals of affirmative action can be understood to be racial justice and sexual justice (Sterba, 2003).
Affirmative action was designed to give qualified minorities a chance to compete on equal footing with Caucasians. Equal opportunities for African-Americans have remained more wishful thinking than fact. Minority students are continuing to struggle to seek an education and minority business owners are still competing against their Caucasian counterparts. Minority workers are experiencing an unemployment rate twice that of Caucasians and hold dead end, low
Running head: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

paying labor jobs. Although the...