Are you for or against affirmative action? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Against.
It promotes racism.
It perpetuates the stereotype that if you a woman or latino or indian you are not as good as a white male there for you need a special qualification to get a job or place in school.

It should be best candidate no matter what.

Answer 2

First of all, let me say this is a topic that hits home for me. For, while my application (grades, test scores, essays) technically did fall within what Cornell takes each year, I am confident that affirmative action played some part in my Early Decision acceptance to Cornell University. That being said, I oppose affirmative action on the basis that I believe we should all be judged on our accomplishments.

However, I am also realistic. For, I understand that we have not yet reached that point in which all is "fair and square." Just look at the photos from Hurricane Katrina and the living conditions of the mainly minority persons in them. Do you think that they have access to the same education that merits admission into the top colleges and universities? So, for the time being, as things are not fair and square, I do understand the need for affirmative action.

Also, I feel that many of those (mainly whites and asians) opposed to affirmative action in education are propelled by unconscious racism. After all, if affirmative action were not in place in cases of higher learning, I can almost guarantee you that in twenty years, when Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, are 99% Asian, all those previously against it would be crying for the return of affirmative action.

(I do not mean to harm anyone with some of my words. I am just telling it as I see it to be)

Answer 3

Affirmative Action=Reverse Discrimination

Answer 4

When properly implemented, I am for it.

The way that I learned, affirmative action was design to address previous wrongs and get things back to a level playing field. Such as if you had to have someone refer you for a job, but only whites were in the job, that requirement was dropped until there were enough minorities in jobs to make things fair.

Usually when the courts accepted affirmative action plans, they had the conditions by which the plan could be said to have worked and then it was terminated.

That said, it sounds like a lot of the plans now aren't structured enough to say the playing field is level and they may go on forever. That I do not agree with.

As a systematic means to correct past wrongs, yes. As a permanent boost to minorities, no.

Answer 5

I am absolutely against Affirmative-Action.

I am a Mexican-American college student. I have never claimed "Hispanic" under ethnicity because I do not think it is relevant to my abilities as a college student.

I think Affirmative-Action is a thoroughly insulting and discriminatory system. I do not need to be given preferential treatment in order to make it in this world. If someone requires preferential treatment not given to others, then well that person should not make it...period.

I think that the merits of the individual person should be the sole critera for selecting the best individual for a job, a position, an admission to a school, etc. To use any other criteria for selecting a person for something is to go contrary to the spirit this Nation was founded upon and that is the worth of the individual, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Affirmative action is the equivalent of telling a minority that "we as a society do not think you have what it takes to make it on your own; therefore we are going to give you something even though you could not achieve it own your own." This serves to ends that are both negative - 1st it is insulting to an individual and their sense of self worth, 2nd it is infantalizing to a minority and his/her race. It serves to enable and to perpetuate the "victim" mentality so prevalent in todays society.

As an native-born U.S. citizen of Mexican ancestry, I have had the benefit of a good education, good food and FANTASTIC nation to grow up in and be a part of. If that is not enough to give me what I need to succeed in this life and compete in the marketplace - then I do not deserve to make it.

My grandfather and grandmother came to the US in 1910 and yes it was a struggle but by the time my grandfather died in 1988 he had retired as a senior partner in a law firm and he and my grandmother had put 8 sons through college, then either law school or medical school.

Finally it violates the Equal Protection clause of the US Constitution - no more need be said

Those are my reasons for disagreeing with affirmative action. I honestly think it is one of the worst ideas ever to come out of Washington...and that is saying something.

Answer 6

This is a tough question, it was on the Michigan ballot this year and it was voted to abolish, I twisted and turned on how to vot for it, and really did not make up my mind until I marked my ballot and I still don't really know if I voted right. Life is not a level playing field as it exist and if you abolish it then life is not a level playing field, either way you have winners and losers. I put my trust in most being fair to all with the most qualified getting the position. I voted to abolish, but still it did not create a level playing field, and that is the part that bothers me. In answer to your question, I guess by my vote you could say I am against affirmative action.

Answer 7

I am opposed to affirmative action because it is racist. Do we have rights as individuals, or as members of groups?

The purpose of affirmative action is to stir up resentment between people and to divide them. If racist and anti-Semitic groups didn't exist, politicians would create them. Did you know that many of these groups are getting taxpayer money? When this fact becomes known, we are told that this person is a "government informant".

Answer 8

I would like to see a program based on class not race. I don't mind helping people up to overcome stuff, but there are a lot of black people, who are a success in America, and a lot of poor whites in the Trailer Park, who would like to move up. I wouldn't mind extending opportunities to disadvantage people if it was based on a class situation than the color of ones skin.

Answer 9

Would it be acceptable if we went to baseball games and the black guys get 5 strikes before they are out and the white guys get three, because of some notion that the blacks are inferior at hitting a baseball? No! in fact it would be insulting. Why is the workplace any different?

Answer 10

I am for affirmative action. As a female that earns less than the average male in the same position, I would eventually like to see the pay scale level out. Most of the people that are hollering, are white males.

There is this movie called: The Color of Fear. It is men of different ethnic backgrounds sitting around in therapy. One of the African Americans says he is bummed about the way he is treated when he applies for a job... One of the white guys tells him that he needs to pull himself up by his bootstraps and work a little bit harder.

So later in the movie, the same white guy is going off about how hard it is for his daughters to get into college because of Affirmative Action. The therapist goes (for the sake of being the devil's advocate): Maybe you should have them pull themselves up by their bootstraps and work a little bit harder...