What's your stance on AFFIRMATIVE ACTION? FOR IT? AGAINST IT?

Question

Definition of Affirmative Action - reverse discrimination

Answer 1

I was for it to correct discrimination, but only in a voluntary fashion, with incentives for those who did it.

I abhor a government policy that mandates one group over another...with fines and jail time for violators...it is a violation of equal protection.

Answer 2

I am against it and i will explain why. When you use affirmative action it unfairly stigmatizes those that were put in that situation. The same thing could be accomplished more efficiently.
Take college entrance all you would have to do is say any American with a B average or above and a family income of 30k or less will be eligible since the majority of candidates in this category would be a minority you accomplish making a deserving individual get into school without fostering resentment .

Answer 3

I wrote this in another question, but here it works the same way.

I'm against it, because it's a crutch that african americans shouldn't be using. Ok, affirmative action is a huge issue just about college admissions, not so much on public hiring. In UCLA for example African Americans are complaining that they have only 2% blacks. They can't compete so they complain and forced UCLA to use "comprehensive review" aka "affirmative action" to get more of them in. This tells me that African Americans want to be judged by the color of their skin, instead of character. They don't want a color blind society (at least in education where they are weak). Yet in areas where they are experts at (athletics), they don't complain.

I'll give an example that i think shows what's wrong.
I went to a high school with mostly chinese, latinos and blacks. and the chinese kids always beat all the other kids by a mile. i remember during guaduation all the top kids were chinese, no blacks. I took many honors and AP classes, and almost no blacks in those classes.
My point is that blacks and to a lesser degree latinos aren't being competitive enough in school. They need to worry less about sports, movies, music, socializing, fads, latest clothing styles, video games, and focus that on school.

Answer 4

Discrimination is discrimination. How can one justify modifying standards based on race? I believe in equality, which many minorities didn't get in the past, and probably to some degree in the present, so let's enforce equality, not favoritism.

Answer 5

I give it another 10 years. I wrote a Business Ethics term paper on this topic, in 1988. At that time, I believed it would take another generation before this was not needed. That's about 10 more years.

I am against it.

Answer 6

Against it. I do believe that it perpetuates oppression in the long run, and it prevents equal rights from moving forward. Agreeing with many already posting their answers, I think it was a very important mandate in its time...but that time has passed. And continuing will only take steps backward.

Answer 7

I am latino and I am against it. It was ok back in the 50s, 60s,
and 70s. But not now. Racism is not a big problem anymore.
back then it was.

Answer 8

In the public arena, against.

Private companies should be allowed to do whatever they want.

That said, I'm personally in favor of some amount of diversity, even at the expense of objective job qualifications. It keeps it interesting.

Answer 9

It had its place 40 years ago.... but now all it does is empower the likes of Jessie Jackson while continuing to tell minority groups that the are second class citizens.

Answer 10

Only those who really don't understand what AA is oppose it. It isn't some broad sweeping governmental program that works against all whites. It's very narrow and selectively applied on a case by case basis.