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Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

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Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action
2/20/2012
Political Science 101
Should Affirmative Action be abolished? Why or why not? To substantiate your position, please reference at least three pivotal cases involving Affirmative Action and explain the Supreme Court’s ruling in these cases
Affirmative action was first pursued in 1978 by the Supreme Court in order to increase opportunities to minorities that at one point in history had been denied to them. This action was initiated to help promote equal opportunities to all Americans, targeted primarily at employers and educational institutions. Although our government had pure intentions when staging this new legacy, there are many intelligent majorities that are being disqualified for jobs or schools because positions are being …show more content…
In 2003, an incident similar to the Bakke example grew much attention. In Gratz V.Bollinger, two white applicants were denied admissions to an undergraduate school because they didn’t earn enough “points” in their application. The University awarded each applicant a score based on a number of different factors including the following; grade point average, test scores and personal achievements. The system automatically awarded 20 points to any and all minorities, putting them 20% ahead in points in the process. Although the court favored the students under the equal protection clause, it does not cover up the fact that there are many flaws in the system and affirmative action may be causing more problems than resolving …show more content…
We are now at a point in time where discrimination against race has greatly diminished, and spending large amounts of time trying to protect discrimination is deterring America away from the bigger issues at hand. No student, minority or not, should be awarded an opportunity if it comes at another student’s expense. Too many times this is happening, and it needs to stop. America has matured since the ‘70’s, and it is now time to abolish Affirmative Action and look forward to utilizing our time in more sensitive programs around the
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