Affirmative Action - Public Opinion vs. Policy :: Affirmative Action Racism Discrimination Essays

Affirmative Action - Public Opinion vs. indemnityWhen Justin Ketcham, a white college student from the suburbs, thinks to the higher(prenominal)est degree assentient accomplishment, he thinks about what happened when he sent out lettersseeking scholarships so he could attend Stanford University after being acceptedduring his senior year of high school.The organizations that wrote back told himtheir money was reserved for women or minorities. To Americans alike Ketcham,its a bailiwick of carnivalness. The average white male will claim that its not fairto attempt to rebalance scales by balancing them the early(a) way. Students likeKetcham are excessively more likely to claim that affirmative action is a chopinegeared towards curtailing workplace prejudices that really dont existanymore.But when Hillary Williams, a black policy company manager from theinner-city, thinks about affirmative action, she thinks about the time she hadto chain three consecutive white male bosses for a job that no one evenapproached her about filling. To her, its also a question of fairness.African-Americans like Hillary feel that there is just no other was besidesaffirmative action to level the playing field in certain businesses.And so thedisparity in public opinion begins. A racially-divided America creates removegroups, which Affirmative Action issue taps a fundamental partitioning in AmericanSociety (Gamson and Modigliani 170)--each with their own view of affirmativeaction on different sides of the line. Government attempts to create policybased upon the junction of the flock tho affirmative action seems to present analmost un-solvable dilemma. Traditionally, it had been a policy that wasgreatly scrutinized for its quotas and alleged unfairness towards Blacks, but atthe akin time it had also been praised for its inherent ability to helpminorities gets jobs they deserve but could not obtain otherwise. So how do wereach a cheerful medium so-to-speak? In American gove rnmental culture, it appearsas though individuality and egalitarianism are values that find themselves onopposite ends of the political battlefield.In a complex world of political ideology and political culture are sets ofvalues and principles that are widely endorsed by politicians, educators, themedia and other opinion leaders that make up the definition of what is to beAmerican (Feldman and Zaller). Some favor the values of individual freedom,especially individual sparing freedom, over other values, especially equalityand popular sovereignty (egalitarianism). These people are labeled Conservatives.The other side of the spectrum consider themselves as Liberals (Feldman andZaller).Because we constitute in a meritocracy created by the strong forces ofcapitalism, there is a leaning for people to fall behind either in the economyor in the academic community.