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Affirmative Action And Its Effects On Affirmative

Decent Essays

Throughout America there are many different views on the effects of affirmative action. Many see it as a negative policy which gives an unnecessary advantage to minorities in America. In a 2009 Pew Poll, “58% of African Americans agree” and only “22% whites agree” that there should be “preferential treatment to improve the position of blacks and other minorities” ("Public Backs Affirmative Action”).
Today affirmative action and other racial injustices tend to be in the spotlight quite often, such as in “Fisher v University of Texas at Austin” case which highlighted that many highly qualified white prospective students are passed over for less qualified minority students to attempt to make the university more diverse using the affirmative action initiative (“Voices: Affirmative Action”). Affirmative action or positive discrimination is a policy in which those who have been discriminated on in the past or who tend to be discriminated on presently are favored, usually in relation to education or jobs. It was introduced by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to attempt to reduce the discrimination still continuing despite the civil rights movements. Later it was further developed and enforced by President Lyndon B. Johnson. A professor of English at San Jose University, Shelby Steele, an African American man, spoke of his views of the negative impacts of affirmative action in his book, “The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America.” In Steele’s book he discredits

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