Few topics in recent memory have had such a polarizing effect on the American public as affirmative action.
Being in favor of affirmative action immediately labels you a liberal, while any opposition makes you a conservative and possibly even a racist.
Instead of standing at extremes on the issue, like Americans normally love to do, it would be smarter to admit that affirmative action is a good idea that isn’t properly implemented.
If the premise behind the concept is to create a more even playing field, then I don’t think that it should be limited to minorities.
While they should garner the majority of the attention because of the systematic, structural discrimination that has put many in a position of lacking the essentials of food, clothing and education, they are not the only people in need.
Instead of the previous proposals, which were meant to help minorities overcome challenges and become more integrated into upper levels of businesses and schools based purely on race, I feel that affirmative action should be based on background.
While it is important to try to make up for the racism and injustice that minorities have endured for years, in order to make this program attractive and workable to everyone, it should be based on other factors.
Chiefly, affirmative action should be based upon a family’s financial situation and the quality of the school system when it comes to getting into college.
Wealthier schools are known to have a far better rate of students continuing their education than schools located in inner city that can barely afford the textbooks, let alone special help.
Better schools mean better instructors, more help for struggling students and luxuries such as SAT teachers that all but guarantee students some kind of passage to the next level.
A recent Stanford Business School research project said that ill will towards affirmative action is not generally caused by racism or people searching for justice, but instead by people who think that it adversely affects their particular group.
I’m not sure that this is necessarily true, in part because I believe that the definitions of racial and social groups have broken down over the past few decades.
Political correctness reigned supreme in the nineties, and as a result the new generations are growing further and further from the racism and sexism that created a need for affirmative action in the first place. Because of this, the more pressing issue of the day is justice and equality for all. The rest should just fall in place.
There should still be some guidelines to prevent the racism that does and always will exist in some corners of society.
I believe that the NFL actually has a fairly good affirmative action policy.
Instead of requiring a certain number of minority coaches, it simply requires teams to interview minority candidates. Because of the competitive nature of sports, the owner will essentially need to hire who he thinks is the best coach regardless of personal beliefs.
A change in the way people look at affirmative action could also clear up the legality of the whole process. In recent years, affirmative action has come under fire as unconstitutional because it gives preferential treatment to people based on race or sex.
Citizens in Michigan voted in November to ban any program that favors the current definition of affirmative action, namely preferential treatment based on race, ethnicity or sex.
If the definition is changed to support the true goal of correcting injustices, there would be no legal conflict, and the people who really need help advancing in society would get it.
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