Affirmative Action and Racial Tension

Affirmative action.   What was its purpose in the first place, and do we really need it now in the liberal super sensitive nineties?   It began in an era when minorities were greatly under represented in universities and respectable professions.   Unless one was racist, most agreed with the need of affirmative action in college admissions and in the workplace.   Society needed   an active law that enforced equality during a period when civil rights bills were only effective in ink.   With so much of America¹s work force spawned from integrated schools now, some may question whether racism really is the problem anymore, and many college students might answer yes.   They see it on college campuses today, and they are not sure why.   Subconscious prejudices, self-segregation, political correctness, reverse discrimination, and ignorance all wade in the pool of opinions surrounding affirmative action and racial animosity.   With racial tensions ever present in this country, one might quest!


ion whether the problems can be solved by affirmative action.


Some feel that affirmative action in universities is the answer to the end of racism and inequality.   If more black students get into and graduate from good colleges, more of them will go on to even out the lopsided numbers in the work force.   Prejudice secretly slips through everyone¹s thoughts.   Or so Barbara Ehrenreich believes when she writes of a quiet, subliminal prejudice that is caused by statistics that prove the fewer numbers of blacks in high profile jobs.   When we see ninety percent of leadership roles in the corporate world held by white men, we begin to doubt other¹s competence in that field.   With so many minorities in menial roles, people begin to believe the white man is best for the top jobs; he knows them well(114).   But with positive affirmative action policies at work, people should begin to recognize that minorities are just as good or better in the typical white man¹s job.  


Ehrenreich...