Throughout time, the United States has continuously failed to meet the minority’s needs. For this reason, there’s a set of government policies called affirmative action, implemented across 41 states, used to redress historic injustices. Affirmative action helps specific groups, minorities, by making special efforts to provide members of these groups with hiring and learning advancement. Affirmative action is an important and necessary policy to make the employment and educational field fair for minorities due to their lack of representation in the professional field.
People of color, especially African Americans, have suffered of socially constructed institutions and environments, thus facing unequal treatment in this country. Which is why affirmative action is a concept crucial to have. It allows there to be equity in order to create equality amongst people of different races and color. In the documentary film Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, we see history of black people in education. The risking of lives for equal treatment and civil rights movement try to reform the social construct. This allowed minority-serving institutions to rise which stirred up the idea of separate but equal. Affirmative action is an equity-based practice and there cannot be equality until there is equity since not all people have the same tools to get where needed or desired.
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With centuries of slavery and segregation, it is no surprise that we have come to pander the white Americans. In Peggy Mcintosh’s article, “White Privilege and Male Privilege”, it is noted that there are different types of privilege, including societal experience, evolutionary pressures, social responsibility, religion, etc. By allowing society that goes without questioning the virtues and entitlement of people, we allow the oppression towards minority to continue. The denial of these privileges protects people’s right to these unearned advantages. Being oblivious or unconscious about these things is what feed the idea of a color-blind society. Some may argue that affirmative action is racist, because as Sigal Alon from “Race, Class, and Affirmative Action: What Is Class-Based Affirmative Action?” said, ‘“affirmative action” has become synonymous with race-conscious admissions policies.’ However, according to the basic tenets of critical race theory, racism is ordinary. Race is a thing we have socially constructed, and even without affirmative action, it is subtly taken into consideration. And if race is not acknowledged, racism is hard to deal. This country was founded on slavery, which has engraved this concept of superior superiority and lead to microaggression. A color-blind society doesn’t work for this reason as for it doesn’t accept race as part of one’s character but rather just believes in judging by one’s character. Race affects the way we grow up. Hence, it is crucial to understand race, especially since it all already part of our society and daily lives.
Affirmative action might sound like it is based on the black and white binary which would ignore the fact that white people can oppressed, and that people of color can oppress each other. As legal scholar Tanya K. Hernandez, from “Race and ethnicity: How are they different?” by Erin Blakemore, writes, “The social experience of being consistently viewed as distinct is what informs a racial identity, not a shared culture.” People from distinctive populations may share experiences at some degree but not face the same discrimination. Race takes part in how we grow as for we are treated differently due to the widely enforced belief of light-colored or white people being over the darker skin colors. It is true that people of color now participate in social equality in terms of being able to play the game we call life, but without any goods others have attained and gained through the centuries of oppression. With affirmative action, we can provide an opportunity for historically disadvantaged people to access the resources needed for them to succeed. Affirmative action can help change the way we see a group of people and reforms the preferences for privilege classes. For example, instead of seeing Mexicans as “dirty immigrants”, we can help reshape the stereotype and see that they are actually hardworking.
One important factor that fits under the scope of affirmative action is academic freedom. Education is crucial. It allows people to reinvent themselves and shape their identity by having a greater understanding of the world and their surroundings. With affirmative action, we allow freedom in the mind of individuals. As Edward Snowden says, “Under observation, we act less free which means we effectively are less free.” Meaning that by having certain restrictions in education, we prevent full exposure with detriments people’s growth. Much like Peter Hinrichs, author of “The Effects of Affirmative Action Bans on College Enrollment, Educational Attainment, and the Demographic Composition of Universities”, says, “Probabilities of being admitted should affect the number and mix of colleges a student applies to, and, moreover, an affirmative action ban may make minorities feel unwelcome and deter them from attending.”
Minority members find that going to school, particularly college is a struggle. In the documentary film, Precious Knowledge, Mexican-American students share their experience growing up in Tucson, Arizona. One of the students, Gilbert, explains how he feels that the education system is against him and feels discouraged in pursuing or continuing in his studies. Theoretically, academic freedom allows Gilbert’s school create a Hispanic Studies department. After implementing classes, such as Latino Literature, Hispanics showed improvement in grades, scores, and tests. This helped students feel better about school which allowed them to be more engaged and active in their academics and community to the point where students did research to create a festival for unity after the Ethnic Studies department was accused of being racism due to segregation. Stated in “Academic Freedom and the First Amendment” by Rachel Levinson Senior Counsel, American Association of University Professors, 'Faculty will always have the best understanding of what is essential in a field and how it is evolving.' It is fair to assume that every professional knows best of their field. Educators want to educate, and academic freedom, a factor that falls into affirmative action, allows that to happen by trusting that professors and teachers most know how to deal with students when it comes to their education as for it is their major.
Affirmative Action helps make up for past injustices, to remedy or repair the gap in equality which would allow social mobility. It allows there to be more diverse populations in institutions, and professional fields. With representation comes advocacy, and as stated before, affirmative action is necessary to make the employment and educational field fair for minorities due to their lack of representation in the professional field. When discussing equity vs. equality with professor Dal Dean as to why it took so long for segregation to be reversed in education, he explained that it was due to the lack of representation in the minority side. This helped me see why compelling interest takes part of affirmative action. Compelling interest allows a practice when is essential rather than a choice, for example admitting students with their ethnicity/race in mind since it can help provide context to where they are coming from.
Ultimately, those against affirmative action might say compelling interest violates the 14th amendment which has the law apply equally to all people. Yet, considering special accommodations as violation is objective. There’s an equal protection clause which contains a equal protection chart which has cases test for strict scrutiny. We cannot be treated equally until we are equal, I say. There have been many discriminatory practices, in the news, in workplace, in shopping centers, in public spaces, etc. Affirmative action has helped increase minority’s number in education, and if it’s working, I don’t see why stop it. There may be flaw, much like anything else, nothing is perfect, which is why as a country we have to work together in order to be free.
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