Affirmative Action: a Permanent Approach Essay example -- Essays Paper

Affirmative Action: a Permanent Approach One of the hottest debates in recent history has been the validity of a Civil Rights policy called affirmative action. The policy proposes â€Å"preferential treatment† to certain groups based on their minority status, giving them an advantage in job employment and some areas of education. The question asked most often is whether it is constitutional to give advantages to certain groups, excluding some, based solely on their race or ethnicity. It is up to our legal system to use â€Å"strict scrutiny,† or consideration from every standpoint, to assess the issue, which is â€Å"a cost-benefit test measuring whether a law that falls (according to the Court itself) squarely within the prohibition of the equal protection guarantee is justified by the [e]specially important social gains that it will achieve† (Rubenfeld, 1997.) Some claim that it will achieve justice, while others think that it promotes forms of discrimination and further separates our society into racial groups. I intend to outline a compromise between the opposing sides, the main goal of which is to utilize justice and equality in coming to a solution that includes every point of view. I feel that this is necessary because minorities in America are underprivileged, and for that reason some measures need to be taken, specifically in education, to induce social equalization. On one side of the controversy, many groups feel that affirmative action â€Å"may be the first instance in our jurisprudence of a constitutional doctrine unconstitutional under itself,† or that affirmative action is a constitutional document that is unconstitutional because it discriminates against a certain group of people, namely white males. These groups clai... ...er 10). Diversity in the workplace. The CQ Researcher Online, 7. http://0-library.cqpress.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu:80/cqresearcher. Jost, Kenneth. (2001, September 21). Affirmative action. The CQ Researcher Online, 11, 737-760. http://0-library.cqpress.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu:80/cqresearcher. Masci, D. (1998, January 23). The black middle class. The CQ Researcher Online, 8. http://0-library.cqpress.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu:80/cqresearcher. Rubenfeld, Jed. "Affirmative Action," Yale Law Journal 107.2 (1997), Questia, 5 Mar. 2004 <http://www.questia.com/>. Stroud, Sarah. "The Aim of Affirmative Action," Social Theory and Practice 25.3 (1999): 385, Questia, 5 Mar. 2004 <http://www.questia.com/>. Worsnop, Richard. (1996, February 23). Getting into college. The CQ Researcher Online. http://0-library.cqpress.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu:80/cqresearcher.