Throughout Boston, conflicting issues have ragged causeing great toils in the school systems. Recently, during the nineties places of employment along with schoolsAffirmative Actionshave been hammered by the Affirmative action laws.
These laws, stating their must be a set number of minorities (depending on population) to help minorities gain retribution from their past. In one instance the McLaughlin’s, a white family, filed a suite against the best school in the city, Boston Latin. Twelve year old Julia wanted to attend this school. She scored well enough on her entracnce exam yet she was still denied due to the quota system. Although this case went through a full hearing, Judge Garrity rulled to keep the quota system which in turn denied Julia from the school.
Ever since the first blacks wer introduced, white people have discriminated greatly. Now, with modern times and law our societies have produced policies of Affirmative actions to level the playing field. Although their may not be as much discrimination now as in the early 1900,s we still have the obligation to provide retribution to these minorities. Affirmative actions allows blacks to be judged by thier characters and qualifications rather than by their skin color. Along the same lines, for some reason the majorities in this country still feel they are some what saperior to our minorities.
With the Affirmative action policies in place it helps employers and schools look closer at these minorities. Quotas are set throughout the country to provide minorities with equal opportunities in thse places. Although this seems to give minorities a break, all it really is doing is equalling everybody to provide opportunities to the minorities. This seems to balance out the runnings by providing minorities with educations and jobs they normally would not attain due to discrimination.
Finally, Affirmative actions are great for the modern generations. Schools and job sites are becoming more and more diverse. The younger generations growing to be our next presidents or nuclear fissisists, will now hopefully beging to learn and work intergrated with these minorities. Hopefully sometime in the near future discrimination will come to an end and all people will be able to live intertwined with different cultures and religions. Although Affirmative actions seems to help minorities it really harms them.
Programs that are based on a racial preference instead of their performance tends to create a victim mentality. If we go on letting the minorities believe this we will never move on. Minorities will go on thinking “were not good enough to earn this position,” so they have to be given to us. Ultimately, this will lead to minorities always getting a break which in turn makes them feel inferior to those who have to work for their placements. Many things are said in support of Affirmative actions including ; It promotes diversity, It makes up for their past, or even that it promotes equal opportunity for minorities. Now, these things might be true on a certain level.
We have to look at which groups of minorities are they actually helping. Yes they are helping the blacks or the Aisians, but are they helping important groups like the poor. Widespread throughout the nation we have the group of people that were born into a poor environment. These people will never have enough money to go to a college or a technical school so almost always they never make an economical or social advancement. Now you would thing that the affirmative action laws would do something about this trying to help them move up, but you do not see this happening. Considering the poor as a minority, and how they are not helped, wouldn’t this decscribe the Affirmative action laws as being discriminant.
If so, what good do they actually do?Affirmative action forces empoyers and admissions of schools to use quota systems in gaining their empoyees or students, even though quotas were banned early in the century by a civil rights act. These quotas are persuasive and public opinion polls show almost eighty percent of the population oppose them. Although they try to promote diversity with these techniques, it ultimatly increases the hatred between these groups. (ex.
whites and blacks)By using these quotas can we actually say were helping? We give minorities breaks, which leads to somebody getting screwed out of something due to skin color. Is this fair or is it purly another act of discrimnation?With all the information and examples I have provided here, I feel the Boston, Latin case was very simple to decide. Amongst the information, included several reasons the Affirative actions policy does nothing but harms the progress our country has made since the beginging of discrimination. When Judge Garrity made the decision to keep the quota system he made a choice to continue discrimination.
Ultimatly the tables have turned, and now our faithful government has made it legal to discriminate agains the majorities. Is it right? Maybe not, but their is nothing that can be done about it, unless Garrity would have made the oposite decision that he did. It is too late now, but we who are against the policies can still voice our opinions.Bibliography:
