Use Chapters 5 and 6 (LaFollette, 2007) as the
foundation for your reflections regarding if affirmative action is ethical. Be
sure to include external sourced content. Present your opinion, support your
opinion, and opposing viewpoints.
Affirmative action
and my internal conflict with it, if you ask me if affirmative action has
helped minorities in a tremendous way? My answer would be yes, it is very
apparent that affirmative action has helped minorities strive and make great
leaps within our civilization. Perhaps I myself have benefited from it in many
ways, I have to think that at some point in my life I have benefitted from a
program such as this one. Although I have reaped the benefits from a program
such as this one, my internal conflict comes from the question of rather it is
fair or not. “Affirmative action is the practice of giving special
consideration to minorities and women in hiring and school placements” (La
Folette, 2007, pg. 87).
The mere
definition of affirmative action bothers me and makes me think that, no matter
what one race or another is getting the short end of the stick here. I believe
that this is not fair because there are Caucasians who grew up with the same
sort of poverty that I did, yet they would not fall under these same benefits
as I would. Even now as an adult, even though my family is in the top 10
percentile of America as far as income comes, my children would still have an
advantage over a Caucasian child who might have grown up in extreme poverty.
We need to
ask ourselves the question of why modern day Caucasians should be penalized for
behavior which they did not take part in. The “practice of affirmative action
hurts white applicants who are in no way responsible for past harms to
minorities” (La Folette, 2007, pg. 87). In many ways this program does
discriminate against whites, why should two wrongs make a right. In fact it
should be noted that the group with the largest amount of poverty in the United
States are Caucasians. It seems that we are punishing one race because of
something which they took no part in. In my book this is extremely unethical,
these type of programs should no longer exist in my opinion.
I am a firm
believer in the thought that affirmative action has served its purpose for
those who wanted to take advantage of the program. No matter where you come
from in the United States, there is an opportunity to get a great education and
succeed in life. Affirmative action is not necessary in today’s world, we
should actually be focused more so on race relations and bring healing to a
country which underwent many horrible acts of discrimination to many different
races. We cannot ignore what happened in the past, we should actually be
learning from these mistakes.
Working on
making this country the land of opportunity and giving everyone an equal
opportunity is what we need to focus on to create a much more ethical
environment. Ethical behavior would be to give everyone a fair shot at equal
employment and education. I hope that one day people will recognize me for my
talents and my hard work not because they are forced to but because I am well
respected. Sometimes I feel like affirmative action might be an insult to
someone of color, it makes me feel like the rest of the country thinks that I
need assistance to get ahead in life. I hope to bring a diverse atmosphere into
a business because they benefit from it and not just because they are seeking a
quota which they need to meet. I do recognize that sometimes minorities are at
a disadvantage because of poverty, language barriers, very few amounts of
family wealth, and living in communities with a higher crime rate. Even though
people are faced with these challenges, we cannot discriminate against anyone
because of the color of their skin or else we will never truly progress in this
country. Establishing strong ethical policies against the discrimination of any
race in this country will make us stronger in the long run. I believe that it
is time that we develop a new system in which we reward those who will strive
for excellence and work the hardest, we need citizens that want to contribute
to our civilization, not weaken it.
References:
LaFollette,
H. (2007). The practice of ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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