Affirmative Action

Thanks, gavin.ogden, for what was definitely an interesting rebuttal. I will do my best to hold to the same standards you have in this debate. == Content == o Refutations o Conclusion o Sources ========== o Refutations My opponent begins by claiming that Affirmative Action has not worked. We look here [1] to see that, as a matter of fact, minority achievements have been steadily and surely been increasing. We can extrapolate this in both directions to see that, with time, Affirmative Action has definitely been working, minimally or not. As for the housing argument, we look into more detail. What my sources show is that minorities are primarily subjugated into poorer neighborhoods. As regards whether or not there is discrimination; to my opponent's shock (and mine, when I found out) there is. [2] From the study provided, we have: QUOTE{ - Racial and ethnic minorities still confront unlawful discrimination approximately one out of every five times they inquire about the availability of homes to purchase or rent (Turner et al. 2002). - complaints... (Greene 2006) have recently been filed charging Craigslist and other web sites with violating the federal Fair Housing Act due to the discriminatory content of selected ads. Among the comments that have appeared in these ads are the following: "Not racist, but white only;" and "Applicants must be gay, white or light-skinned Hispanic males" (Filosa 2006; Hughlett 2006). - Berry and Hogan (2008) focus on discrimination in the electronic rental housing market in Toronto, a racial and ethnic context similar to metropolitan areas in the U.S. They find that those with Asian, African-American, and Arab-sounding names are treated less favorably than whites. - Carpusor and Loges (2006) also find differences in the treatment of Arab and blacks, relative to whites in Los Angeles, California. - Research on employment practices has uncovered systematic patterns of name-based discrimination within the labor market (Bertrand and Mullainathan 2004). When asked, "Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?" employers in Boston and Chicago answered affirmatively. When resumes were mailed to employers in those two cities, applicants with white sounding names were 50 percent more likely to be invited for interviews even though applicants with black sounding names were assigned slightly better employment records (Bertrand and Mullainathan 2004). - Figlio (2005) found that at least 15 percent of the black-white test score gap in a large Florida school district is due to differences in the "blackness" of the names given. }END QUOTE These are only a few examples from the cited article; there are hundreds of others. This all leads us to rationally believe that discrimination is in fact dominating our society, whether we know it or not. As for Asian Americans; they benefit from Affirmative Action. [3] "Myth: Affirmative action is an African American entitlement program. FACT: Affirmative action benefits a broad range of people and communities that continue to face discrimination in this country, including Latino, Native, Arab, Asian and African Americans." The harms of affirmative action have yet to be provided. My opponent believes any racist policy is harmful; I would agree if the policy is discriminatory. Affirmative action is nothing more than preferential treatment, to compensate for past social stratification gone haywire. The pole-vaulters with 5-foot poles simply haven't qualified yet. Once they make it over 5 feet, they get a 6-foot pole, then 7, and so on and so forth. There is still a long way to go before our society is equal. o Conclusion There have been no harms demonstrated as results of affirmative action that are clearly tangible in today's society. I posit that it is necessary to equalize the clearly unequal playing field. I thank my opponent for the wonderful debate, and for this reminder to switch my old position on affirmative action- I'm actually for it. I just forgot :P I urge a Pro vote; thank you, readers and voters, for your time. o Sources [1] http://usa.usembassy.de... [2] http://media2.myfoxboston.com... [3] http://www.aapf.org...