The debate over affirmative action

The debate over affirmative action is unique in that it turns upon a philosophical paradox: the goal of affirmative action is, after all, ultimately to make itself unnecessary (The Christian Century 5). In this, affirmative action attempts to level the playing field at early stages (in primary education, in social welfare programs, etc.) so that subsequent affirmative action at later stages (in the workforce, at graduate schools, etc.) is unnecessary. Further, affirmative action aims to bring about its own demise in other ways; even at the earliest stages, it is thought that once the disadvantaged have been guaranteed access to greater opportunities, they can then be left to their own devices to make the most of them. Racial diversity should follow, but it need not. Many feel that it is redundant to continue to correct racial imbalances over and over again, generation upon generation, ad infinitum; this approach, it is argued, is imprecise in targeting the needy and lacks overall efficacy. Others argue that so long as social inequity exists in any form, affirmative action will always fulfill a unique and necessary function in American society. On this view, affirmative action should merely be reformed, never abandoned utterly.

For these reasons, debating affirmative action is difficult to do. At what point can it be argued that affirmative action has achieved its purpose and hence, become unnecessary? Indeed, is it even conceivable that there will be a day when af

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y and across the board. There are many ways of approaching affirmative action, bearing opportunities and outcomes in mind. In Texas, for example, in 1996 a federal court outlawed racial preferences in the higher education system in Hopwood v. Texas (Ewers 48). Many assumed that this decision would spell the end of racial diversity in Texas. The Texas state legislature, in order to avoid this outcome, adopted a "10 percent plan" in which the top 10 percent of each Texas high school's graduating class was guaranteed placement in any Texas state university, regardless of test scores (Ewers 48). In this case, it was argued that traditional affirmative action plans had stopped working. By adopting the 10 percent scheme, it was thought that universities could achieve the objective of affirmative action racial diversity without ostensibly considering race in the admissions process. By many accounts, the plan has worked. Since the Hopwood ruling, the University of Texas system "has seen a 15 percent increase in African-American students and a 10 percent jump in Latinos" (Ewers 49). However, some point out that statewide gains in minority admissions have not occurred at the higher end schools in the state school panoply. That

Category: Psychology - T