President John F. Kennedy's Arguments Against Affirmative Action

Paper 3 Affirmative action is the concept of giving favorable treatment to minorities in admission to universities and/or employment. It was developed to correct years of discrimination and give the disadvantaged minorities an extra boost to compete with the majority. The current state of diversity as compared that of 50 years ago indicates that the affirmative action policy has been a success. Some people think that since there is diversity in education and employment field, affirmative action is no longer needed and will lead to more problems than it has solved (Messerli). President John F. Kennedy, as a result of the 1964 Civil Rights Movement, introduced affirmative action with his Executive Order number 10925. The order commanded
Some people believe that it is easier for a white male to succeed in society compared to the minority. Supporters of affirmative action believe that since for the first several centuries of America’s existence white men discriminated against blacks, Native Americans and other minorities, used them for unpaid labor, took land from them, subjected them to brutal punishment, and denied most of the fundamental rights provided by the Constitution, affirmative action is an appropriate way to compensate the descendants for the wrongs done to their ancestors. In 1964 Civil Rights Movement, African Americans achieved equal rights politically but still suffered discrimination socially. To minimize the white privilege and racial discrimination, affirmative action was introduced. It helped in reducing the social and economic gap between minorities and white men (Messerli). Affirmative actin tries to bring up the representation of certain minority groups in certain fields of employment and education where they are usually underrepresented (U.S Department of Labor). Due to years of discrimination and racial problems, passing an equal rights law will no end racism. Affirmative action gives a chance and an early boost to the minorities to compete in the society where white men have already gotten a head start (Messerli). Creating a diverse environment in colleges and work place, will help towards fixing the racial
A minority student will not go for a 4.0 GPA if he knows that he only needs to get 3.5 GPA to get the benefits of a 4.0 students (Messerli). It handicaps the minority and permanently keeps them behind the majority in reality, which shows the hypocrisy of this whole concept. “After affirmative action programs were outlawed in Texas in 1995, the University of Texas Law School Latino student enrollment has been cut in half.” (Affirmative Action Facts). This shows that after 30 years of affirmative action, people from Latino community were still dependent on the affirmative action to get enrolled. It is condescending to minorities to imply that they need affirmative action to succeed. A student will never know that whether he got enrolled because of his skills or skin. It demeans true minority achievement as it automatically labels all minority success on affirmative action rather than hard work, ability and dedication (Messerli). Affirmative action does not solve the problem but just temporary ignores it or worse, creating a even bigger problem because one thing that experts emphasize on affirmative action is that once it’s established, its near impossible to end or stop