Affirmative Action Over the Past Term Paper

Criticism of Affirmative Action

Over the years, specific criticisms of Affirmative Action have developed as a result of the endless debate and legal wrangling over the issue, as well as the division in American society about the topic. The first criticism of Affirmative Action to consider is the assertion that the burden of compensating victims of discrimination usually becomes the responsibility of those who are not individually responsible for the discrimination itself. For example, in the case of employment, promotion and educational opportunities, white males are usually the ones who pay the consequences of discrimination violations even if they did not cause it. While the argument is made that this is just because the white males receive the most benefit from discrimination against others, the same argument can be made that the price that white males pay for these extra opportunities exceed what they ever receive in return, making them the victims of discrimination in an interesting twist of events. This being said, a valid argument that the innocent are punished in these compensation situations can be fairly made.

The Quality Argument is also a classic in criticizing Affirmative Action. This argument puts forth the theory that since less than qualified people are often selected for jobs because of affirmative action, the quality of their work is less than that of the most qualified candidates and as a result, the general quality of goods and services resulting from this is damaging to society as a whole. This argument would be valid if the world was made up of absolutes, but it is not, and therefore, the argument cannot wholly be true. For example, the Quality Argument makes the assumption that in every case of Affirmative Action, the candidate selected for the job is not qualified and also assumes that the candidate cannot or will not learn to provide quality output. When viewed in this light, the absurdity of this argument is clear as it is impossible that every Affirmative Action candidate is unqualified and it is also highly unlikely that every Affirmative Action candidate will perform poorly and never improve.

Lastly, The Injury Done by Affirmative Action claims that Affirmative Action is unacceptable because it hurts the people it is supposed to help. In other words, this argument maintains that the effect of hiring minorities because of whatever makes them a minority points out their inferiority and shows that the only way that the minority person could advance is if they are given preferential treatment. As with many of the other Affirmative Action arguments, this argument is flawed because it is based upon several points that are simply untrue, and actually cross over into racial bias themselves. First, under Injury Done, the inferiority of minorities is assumed as is the reasoning that minorities would never be able to advance without extra help because of their inferiority. This is nonsense because of a few different pieces of information; to begin, the idea that people are of lower intelligence, ability, ethics or ambition because of a difference in gender or race simply has no place in a civilized world. Taking this a step further, it is even more incredible to jump to the conclusion that because of this inferiority, the minorities need an extra helping hand, lest they fail miserably if left to their own devices. All of this is illogical; a more logical explanation for the need for Affirmative Action, in closing, is that racial and gender differences have created stereotypes and outright hatred in many cases that has necessitated the protection of minorities through such programs as Affirmative Action. It is the abuse of Affirmative Action, rather than the policy itself, which has led…