Affirmative Action

My apologies as I did not have the time available to me to post my argument last round. But anyway, onto Con's claims! 1. "Affirmative action does not end hatred" I never said that it did, just that it is an effective way to level the playing field for minorities that would otherwise be at a disadvantage since society does not look upon them as highly as a majority. 2. "Affirmative action punishes majorities" Affirmative action does not punish anyone except for those who harbor hatred or discriminate against a certain group of people. The purpose of affirmative action is to give special consideration to people who belong to minority groups when it comes to applying for a job or getting into a college or private school of some sort. [1] In most cases when people apply for something, the person who reviews the application does not even see the person to begin with and only if they identify as belonging to a minority group does affirmative action make an impact on them. Living and being part of a minority group is not easy since people who do belong to minorities face discrimination on a daily basis and may even be victims of hate crimes. Would it be fair to be harassed, referred to by derogatory phrases, or even be beaten or hurt and then on top of all of that worry if your application went through solely on the basis of your skin color? While people who belong to majorities do not have to worry about their emotional and physical safety, they also do not have to worry about facing discrimination when it comes to applying for a job or a school. Affirmative action is society's way of saying, "Minorities face too many hardships in their lives and while we can only do so much to provide for their safety, we can ensure that they will have equal opportunities when it comes to being employed or educated." 3. "Affirmative Action is illegal" In the statement that Con quoted from my opening argument, I did not mean that affirmative action would be illegal. I was only stating that it may become unnecessary in the future sometime. Right now, affirmative action is only ensuring that a person be considered for a job or education that, without this enforcement, may otherwise have been ignored simply if that employer didn't like blacks, gays or women. Affirmative action is only ensuring that each person be considered equally and if there is less discrimination in the future, then affirmative action would not have to enforce equality as strongly as it does now. 4. "Affirmative action is ineffective" Affirmative action is meant to provide for minorities who have most likely been affected by discrimination or by hate crimes. It has nothing to do with the economic status of the people and Con can't expect it to be doing the job of welfare and unemployment when affirmative action simply IS NOT welfare or unemployment. Conclusion: Affirmative action is the necessary reenforcement that people need to make sure that minorities will be able to apply for the same jobs that majorities can, join the same groups that majorities can and be educated in the same ways that are available to majorities. Without it our society would degrade itself back into the discrimination we saw towards the African American community where they had specific water fountains, bathrooms, bus seats and every measure was taken to ensure blacks did not interact with whites. Would this be right? Would this even be moral? Affirmative action does not allow peoples personal feelings towards minorities to play a role in their decision on whether that specific person be allowed into their school, their club or group or be employed in their business and it is necessary that things stay this way in our society as long as discrimination is present. 1. http://www.merriam-webster.com...