“What then is freedom?” Asked the famous abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass in a speech offered in the early days of the year 1865 in a gathering joined for the coming of the end of the institution of slavery and the Civil War. As Douglass states which were reported by Rubio (2001), “Freedom is the right to choose one’s employment. It is most positively anything and when individuals decide for any man he when that man should work, where he should work then the man is diminished into slavery. Affirmative Action has long been a topic of discussion for so many years and that many of the people have benefitted or rather suffered from the impact and history created by the perils of Affirmative Action. In a definition proposed by Holzer and Neumark (2006), affirmative action is a set of behaviors done by admission offices of universities, employers, and government employees to prevent discrimination from their place of work. Such actions are done with the idea of strengthening the current economic conditions of the women and minority groups which concern employment, education and business growth.
Affirmative action traces its history back in the 1990s when the struggle over the issue of affirmative action within the United States go as far back at the time when the white people had claimed itself above the privileged social strata and as the autonomous race over others which led to the birth of slavery in the Americas. These activities were constituted during the first settlements of the Anglo-American colonies in Maryland, Carolinas, and Virginia to lower the labor costs and dull the threat of unionizing the labor. According to Rubio (2001), it was work for no educational advancement, no compensation or no wealth to go against poverty by which in reality the poorest white person can achieve with their work.
Although not often vocal with today’s real scenario of affirmative action, it has evolved to fit the current needs of the time. Currently, it is at the point of transforming itself into not only a set of mandatory and voluntary guidelines, timetables, legal rulings, and quotas. It has also done away with the image of garnering government trade unions, schools and businesses mandate to award to the people of color, seniors, people with disabilities and women the privilege to be hired, admitted and get contracted in their choice of field. It has rather become a formless category that includes electoral relocation that might improve the odds for Latinos and African Americans to hold government office. Affirmative Action has now become a folklore that focuses on the idea of “race.”
Having known of the current situation of the people of color, the writer has chosen to focus its writings on the impact of the so-called affirmative action to the black history. This paper aims to expound fully on the implications surrounding the implementation of affirmative action to the people of color particularly its impact on education and the students that experience racial discrimination. Also, this paper aims to assess the full history and improvements that affirmative action has had over the black history for so many years. Upon discussing the history and its disadvantages and impacts, this paper aims to create recommendations by which the people of color and the whites alike can move to address the problem of racial impartialities in harmony through Affirmative Action.
According to Reed (1983), affirmative action in the realms of higher education has become the top issue for discussion. It has changed to become the beginning of an emotional debate amongst peers of the academe and the like. This affair has resulted to such for having been misunderstood as a more subtle form of reverse discrimination which is adopted by many of today’s top educational institutions. It has been forgotten that affirmative action has been theorized to eliminate discrimination and to address the impact of the past prejudices (Reed, 1983). It is considered a dedicated work to provide missed opportunities to people of differing classes or individuals who were once victimized by the cruelty of discrimination. Affirmative Action also does not equate to gaining access to equal rights. It is only a means or an avenue for the long-term elimination of discrimination.
Not only were the segregations pursued, but enrollment numbers also dropped in both the graduate and undergraduate levels within the general minority population. According to Reed (1983), the exact reasons for these reductions were not clear. Rather, what was clear was that the minorities within the public school population have heightened in number when compared to their higher education counterparts. Seeing the decline, having the representation of people of color should be a major priority for school administrators, policymakers and educators are alike given the 1965 mandate to include affirmative action in all areas.
Since President Johnson’s push for affirmative action in employment and in the academe, schools during the year 1965, have thought of ways in identifying their plans to diversify the area of the academe. This sudden forced “inclusion” of diversification led the institutions which were once discriminatory to consider race as one of its admitting factors. Although the 1960s has long been gone the affirmative action into the picture, it can still be observed that the concept still continues to survive amidst the numerous criticisms and oppositions threw to it by those who disagree with diversity. This event was proved by a study conducted by Sax and Arrendondo (1999) who state that among the four racial groups studied for their research; it was found that the white students have vehemently opposed affirmative action as an inclusion in the criteria for admissions. Those who have shown their support for affirmative action were students who are more actively committed to the strengthening of diversity in education.
Given the data presented, it can be concluded that attitudes in the educational system towards affirmative action still vary in racial/ethnic coordinates. There still exists a vagueness among the students, faculty and administrators of the academic institutions about the actual purpose of affirmative action having observed such. Adding to the cloud that it has created in schools, affirmative action was also used as a tool to reversely discriminate the minority groups of the schools. Black state universities have been set up as a way to maintain the segregation. Also, because affirmative action is included in the admission factors, many students continue to misunderstand the purpose judging it as a point of leniency for minority students. Given the case, further campaigns and information drives regarding the discussion of affirmative action must be made for its successful implementation.
References
Holzer, Harry J, and David Neumark. 'Affirmative Action: What Do We Know?'. Journal of
Policy Analysis and Management 25.2 (2005): 463--490. Print.
Rai, K. B., & Critzer, J. W. (2000). Affirmative action and the university: Race, ethnicity, and gender in higher education employment. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Reed, R. J. (1983). Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Is It Necessary? The Journal of Negro Education, 52(3), 332. doi:10.2307/2294668
Rubio, P. F. (2001). A history of affirmative action 1619-2000. Mississippi, MI: University Press of Mississippi.
Sax, L. J., & Arredondo, M. (1999). Student Attitudes toward Affirmative Action in College Admissions Author. Research in Higher Education, 40(4), 429-459.
