Affirmative Action to promote Equal Opportunity in the United States is Justified

SOMEBODY, tear me apart. I want it to happen, and I want VALID arguments! Resolved: Affirmative Action to promote Equal Opportunity in the United States is Justified Justified- being proven as just. Just- equitable (Black's Law) Affirmative Action- steps taken to increase the representation of historically excluded groups in employment, education, and business Equal Opportunity- equal opportunity is closely aligned with the concept of equality before law Promote- To encourage or incite 1.Not Beneficial to anybody a.Minorities Failing out b.Ruins Standards 2.I t is Unjustified a.Rejected by States 3. Affirmative Action Promotes Discrimination a.Racial crutch b.Reverse discrimination 1. Affirmative Action is not beneficial to anybody, including minority groups. In California, UC Berkley one year accepted all 317 of their minority applicants. These students were chosen under affirmative action criteria rather than that of academic qualifications. The average SAT score of these minority students was 952, which was well under Berkley's average of almost 1,200. Despite the low SAT scores, these students were still admitted because of being a minority under affirmative action. More than 70% of those students failed to graduate from Berkeley. Because of this, Walter Williams stated, "Students who might have been successful at a slightly less demanding university were transformed into artificial failures in the name of racial justice" The 70%+ students that failed out, could have done much better at a lower level university had UC Berkley just looked at qualifications, and picked the students off of that rather than race, these minorities could have excelled elsewhere. Now, they are stuck with that loss of time, and money with nothing to show for it. Affirmative action also ruins standards that are set for specific reasons. For example, if we want to create true diversity based off of affirmative action, we must also consider pageants and competitions. For an oral competition, you would need to include mutes. For a beauty contest, you'd need somebody ugly. For a race, you include a cripple. These examples are obviously unrealistic, because you never see it happen. Why? Because there is no use including somebody who doesn't even stand a chance. Now I'm not stating that the minorities don't stand a chance… I'm simply advocating that NO MATTER what race we are, that we be judged based off our skills, achievements, and other similar factors. Martin Luther King, Jr. – leader of the civil rights movement for minorities stated… "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. " 2. Affirmative action to promote equal opportunity is unjustified. First we must look at the definitions of the resolution from the Black's Law Dictionary… Affirmative Action- steps taken to increase the representation of historically excluded groups in employment, education, and business Equal Opportunity- equal opportunity is closely aligned with the concept of equality before law Just- equitable-consistent with principles of justice and right Promote- To encourage So we take steps to increase the representation of historically excluded groups in employment, education, and business to encourage the concept of choosing equality before law. This is not Just, this is not equitable because it is not consistent with the principles of justice and right. In California, Michigan, Washington, Florida, and Nebraska, State law has banned the use of affirmative action in public education and hiring. Because of this, the equality is not consistent. These five states use affirmative action in fewer circumstances than the rest of the state. Since public education is state dictated, and federally, we cannot force affirmative action upon the public school system in states that ban it, affirmative action will never truly promote equal opportunity. 3. Affirmative Action promotes discrimination. There are two really serious problems that came along with affirmative action. The first one is the social label. Affirmative action literally labels the white male as the majority, and the Black's, Mexicans, Asians, etc. as a minority. Because they are a minority, they gain special benefits which many would not have originally received. Affirmative action literally promotes racism on all levels because of that fact. Think of when you see a crippled person. People tend to help that person more just because they are a crippled person. We are crippling the minorities while using affirmative action as a crutch. On the other hand, Affirmative Action causes reverse discrimination. The reason this happens is because when a job is hiring, or a school is accepting applications, when it comes down to comparing two males, one of majority, another of a minority, they will choose the minority to follow affirmative action. Even if the minority is less qualified, he will be chosen over the majority, which is discrimination against the white male.