Affirmative Action

I will begin by addressing the problems with some of my opponents arguments. 1. "Some medical schools now decline certification to aspiring doctors who have proven themselves technically and academically but lack the social skills to relate with patients. " This is a good point, but also an issue. If a heart surgeon is plenty good at making his patients feel comfortable, but isn't as good at open heart surgery as another doctor, then why wouldn't it make sense for a hospital to hire the more academically experienced one then the one who has a good way with talking to the patients? Its not a therapist meeting, its open heart surgery. People need to think about the more desirable qualification. 2. "Consider: if may be a qualification for a policeman or policewoman in the inner city to be black or Hispanic, and that does not make the people granting blacks and Hispanics those jobs racist, it makes them pragmatists. Likewise, it may be part of the merit and qualifications of a worker in a rape crisis center that she is a woman. " You are clearly missing the point. Being a certain race shouldn't be a qualification for anything because that is racial profiling, which is wrong. Whites did it to blacks in the early 1900's so that only whites could get certain jobs and only blacks could get certain jobs. It should be that anyone can get any job, regardless of their skin color, but on bases of merit. That is the only way towards a more colorblind, and equal society. 3. "According to studies, "affirmative action beneficiaries have succeeded in higher education and various occupations despite not having the required test scores or GPA, therefore exposing reified concepts of merit" as "intellectually biased. "" Please remember to cite your source when talking about studies, or quoting individuals. 4. " it is well-known that SAT scores favor particular ethnic groups" First of all SAT scores cant favor anyone, they are the scores resulting from someone's SAT examination and do not poses the ability to favor one ethnic group or person over another. Also, I know alot of African American and Latin American students who get greater grades than me, which proves that its an issue of self responsibility and lack of effort on individuals behalf, no matter the circumstance. 5. "Blacks and Hispanics get worse public education, because the urban schools they go to don't have as much money as the schools in white suburbs. The reason this happens is because public schools are financed from local property taxes, so in communities where houses and businesses are less expensive, the schools provide worse education. " Like I said before, if there is a single person in one of those poorer schools who is successful while at that school, then your argument is invalid because no matter how bad the condition, its still possible to do well. It doesn't hurt if those kids aren't doing drugs or acting criminal either. There are also alot of people who became successful who had poor backgrounds (cited below) . http://www.intelligenius.net... 6. "Then, of course, there is institutional sexism: women are paid less than men for doing the exact same jobs and holding the exact same qualifications. That's considered unlawful discrimination, but its institutionalized in such a way that it cannot be legally penalized. " Agreed (that this is a problem), but this can be fixed without affirmative action, and clearly isn't fixed by affirmative action as can be seen by the fact that it still happens just about everywhere. Here are some facts showing the end of AA 1. There are Five states now with bans on affirmative action. California, Washington, Michigan, Nebraska, And Arizona. States like Florida and Connecticut are also passing anti AA legislation. Texas banned Affirmative action in schools. . http://en.wikipedia.org... 2. The only Black Justice in the supreme court is against it which is a pretty big statement, since according to pro race is another type of merit towards a persons credibility. 3. Most people cant decide when to apply affirmative action. Its the 1/16 rule. If you have any blood that's not white, should you be qualified for Affirmative action policies? If no, then the whole point is gone. AA is meant to help those with a "minority" background, what if a white male has a "minority" background? 4. Its a giant rambling mess, and its only turning people against one another. As time goes by more and more states will pass ban legislation on AA until it is progressively eliminated. I enjoyed this argument very much and cheers to pro for accepting.