Affirmative Action should be abolished

Observation 1. Affirmative action requires the person that is receiving the benefits to be from a negatively discriminated group of people in the community. AA (affirmative action) can only exist to benefit those that have had negative impacts trough discrimination in the society at large, benefiting those that were positively discriminated against are not valid claims for AA. This is warranted through the definitions provided.Contention 1. Aids in the search for truthSubpoint A. Allows for the revision of our metaphorical maps.Peck says that we each have a map that we use as a representation of the territory in which we inhabit, and that in order to have an accurate representation of the territory, we need our maps to be seen by lots of people that each can revise the terrain as it changes (since it does change often). Of course, this is a metaphor for that we must have enough knowledge to navigate the entirety of Truth, and a map that changes as the Truth does as well; and the only way that we can ensure that our map is navigatable of the Truth is to compare our knowledge with the knowledge of those that have different backgrounds and ideas.Affirmative action allows us to see different types of knowledge from those that have a different background from us, because otherwise they would not be able to be in our colleges or workplaces (places that we actively try to seek Truth). When we do not have people that can give insight into what their maps are, we cannot revise ours to reflect the true nature of Truth overall. Societies exist to allow us to collaboratively search for truth and to make a culture out of the (small) truths that we do find - and allowing those that are oppressed by the society and culture at large lets us get a step closer to finding Truth.AA allows us to be able to piece together a more accurate map of the terrain that we are all trekking through because we have more mapmakers on our journey that can show inconsistencies or falsehoods in our maps. Thus, the search for Truth is heightened when we have AA.Subpoint B. Open the limitations of language to see a bigger truth.People from different walks of life are each socialised and acculturated to believe in certain things that represent Reality and Truth, and from this, they internalise the teachings of those that were before them. Zerubavel claims in his essay, The Social Lens, that there exists an ethnocentric tendency of those in a culture to believe that their ways of doing something are superior to another cultures, and even within one overarching culture (the USA, for example), there are many subcultures (the "hood" in the US) that each have been socialised and internalised different things that, in turn, have an affect on our search for truth [2]. We need these different ways of socialisation to be able to actually pinpoint the Truth to what it really is, and to be able to see beyond our own ethnocentric barriers that are already in place. When we have our barriers down, we can both search for Truth better, and we are able to see our mistakes easier and we can see that one culture's way of doing something is equally as valid as our own. This is vital to any sort of work environment; if we go to a new job, and they have a way of work that is culturally different than yours, it will help you not just dismiss this way of working as primitive or unfounded in fact, because it will be equally as valid as your own way of work.When in a place of work, you need to be able to see that you are not always correct and that sometimes other people, with different ideas radically, are just as correct and have the same basis as you do. That is something vital to working in a global economy such as the world is today, and only AA can allow us to have this, because it allows us to merge with other people of other cultures and socialisations. AA allows us to see beyond the scopes of what we already believe and allow us to seek for a wider Truth and for a wider way of living.Contention 2. Economic benefitsSubpoint A. EmploymentIt is well understood that having higher unemployment directly increases the GDP and overall economic stability of a country. Having more people employed means that there exist more people to create goods that lubricate the wheels to having increased economic activity - having no jobs means that nobody can make any goods (which means that GDP is negatively affected, since GDP is about the production of all final goods), so having more jobs is intrinsically beneficial. In 1995, Cose found that there were "six million women ... who simply wouldn't have the jobs they have today, but for the inroads made by affirmative action" [3]. This means that there were 6 million more people in the workforce simply because we had affirmative action in place that benefited women, because they were discriminated against in certain fields of work. This means that there is a net benefit to the economy DIRECTLY attributable to AA. Without AA, by extension of logic, this would mean that the economy would be slower than it was in 1995 because those 6 million jobs would not be held by anyone. If these women had not received these jobs, there would be extreme negative impacts on them because of this; humanitarian and otherwise (they cannot afford to feed children, etc). Without AA, we are trying to eliminate the possibility of women having the ability to actually thrive in this society.In today's society, there is still discrimination. Allowing AA to allow those that are discriminated against to find jobs, which directly benefits our economy, is something that we should care about; it is something that many people desire, so without AA, we do not have a net benefit to the economy.Contention 3. Educational benefitsSubpoint A. Diversity is beneficial.In studies conducted by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), they found that many educators in universities think that having a high amount of diversity in the classroom is beneficial to both the minority and the majority students within their classrooms [4]. "...[F]aculty members at Research-I universities value diversity and ... many faculty members adjust their classes to take advantage of diversity to enhance the learning process", the study concludes on page 22. Having a high diversity in the classroom leads to more in-depth analysis and discussion based on experiences, and that is vital to the formation of the collegiate and academic mind. The only way that we can actually ensure that we are able to have a high diversity is by having a way to ensure that certain groups of people can actually get into the collegiate experience, without being denied simply because of the groups that they belong to.AA allows university professors to have a higher diversity in their classes, and in turn, have a better classroom and collegiate experience due to the different ideas being thrown around. In fact, professors are so encouraging of high diversity that "virtually no faculty members believed that diversity had negative effects on their institutions or classes," the study finds. Subpoint B. Without having AA, minorities are less persuaded to actually go to college.In 1998, when the University of California got rid of AA, there was a major drop in the amount of minorities going into the college. According to one study, "UC Berkeley had a 61 percent drop in admissions of African American, Latinos, and Native American students, and UCLA had a 36 percent decline." This means that we are literally trying to ban the access to education that all people should have, from minorities simply because they are minorities, by banning AA [5].The merits of having a high diversity rate have been explained above (in both the Truth sections and the subpoint A of C3). When minority rates third or halve their original amount, the search for Truth is impacted negatively, and the merits of diversity are not present at all. Having a high diversity and a good search for Truth is desirable, thus we should say that this is a benefit of AA. SummaryWhen we have AA, we are able to search for Truth with more colaboration, we are able to improve the economy significantly, we are allowing for women to thrive, and we are enriching the educational experience. With the definition of "should" presented (desirability), we can only rationally vote con).[1]. http://siestakeybeachmeeting.com...;(page 50 of the PDF viewer, 44 of the "book" itself) [2]. https://books.google.com...(honestly, an amazing read, you should read the entire thing; take notes if you do, it is very dense. PM me if you want to talk about it because I love its ideas! It should be at the place that the essay I mention should start at) [3]. http://www.timwise.org...;(note: I can't find a PDF of this book online, but this is a source to back up the claims that I have; I could just cite the book but this gives a basic review of what the study found so I think that it is more suitable as a source. I do have the book in my house to verify that what the author of this is claiming is what the book claims as well)[4]. http://www.aaup.org...;[5]. http://www.civilrights.org...;(300 characters left OP)