Law And Inequality Thesis Text

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Affirmative action: an advancement or a backtrack? in the summer of 1619, the first africans were brought to jamestown, virginia not to live as free settlers but as subordinate slaves. They worked strenuously for whites, who considered themselves superior to africans, without much benefit. Racism is not just the belief that one race is superior to others, but the act of negatively identifying individuals based on the color of their skin.

Attributing race to individual character has proven to have negative implications that are difficult to mend. There have been different approaches to rectify the effects of racism dating back even before the civil war. One of the fruition of these attempts is affirmative action, which was initially enforced to ensure equality in hiring among minorities. Throughout its duration, however, it has alleviated the racial tension unsubstantially.

Affirmative action’s attempt to halt the racial disparities in higher education that has burdened the african americans constitutes an inconsequential solution: it forges the same environment suffering the struggle it has been trying to eradicate. Racism in america has incessantly tried to prevent minorities from advancing in higher education. Prior to the emancipation proclamation, laws precluded african slaves from reading and writing. If caught in violation, their white enslavers severely punished the slaves, including the inhumane, coercive wearing of iron muzzle.

With laws that shut them in fear and torture and treatment that rendered them helpless, the african slaves aimed hopelessly for educational opportunities that bypassed them. Eventually, education opened its doors to african americans, but the opening was rather narrow and hesitant. Decades after the emancipation proclamation, the discrepancy in offering collegiate opportunities to students remained ignored and almost unchanged. In 1950, the inadequacy became apparent when the separate but equal doctrine, a racial policy supporting racial segregation, almost prevented sweatt, an aspiring law student, from being admitted to university of texas law school. A year later, texas also learned about the sacrifice linda brown had to go through everyday.

As a result of the separate but equal policy, she was forced to walk a mile to get to her black elementary school even though a white elementary school was just a stone’s throw away from her home. By preventing linda brown from grasping the fundamentals necessary to succeed in college, she could suffer the same fate of the thousands of african slaves staring at education when they should have been immersing themselves in the power it holds. As the reprehensible image of racism and ineffectiveness of the civil rights law began to surface, the americans recognized the need for a solution to redress the issue. In 1965, president lyndon johnson delineated the concept of affirmative action: you do not take a man who for years have been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, ‘you are free to compete with all the others’.

In essence, affirmative action was viewed as a tentative remedy to prepare minorities, specifically african americans, mentally and socially for them to fairly compete in the job marketplace in the future. When it was later enforced to include education, affirmative action promised a harbor for educational opportunities impartial of a student’s color. Its positive effect was seen in the increase of minorities enrolled in college institutions.

This included the higher rate of 7.5% black law students in 1995 compare to 1.29% in 1970. Six scores and 18 years ago, abraham lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation that freed african slaves from the ownership of whites. 53 years ago, the supreme court ruling helped sweatt gain admission to a law school. Board of education landmark case initiated the dynamic that would desegregate public schools.

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And 39 years ago, lyndon johnson ordered the implementation of affirmative action to level the playing field between minorities and non minorities. After all those years, is american education now a matured, apolitical institution free from the stench of racial bigotry? the low number of college enrolled african americans does not affirm so nor does the figures in the 2001 and 2002 college board seniors national report. In the two previous years, african americans had the lowest average sat score of 859 and 857, respectively. Today, affirmative action breathes out the same hostile air that fails to secure equality in higher education.

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Originally, it was intended as a temporary tool to help minorities by taking affirmative steps to ensure that they are represented equally. Affirmative action has increased the diversity of student bodies in universities in the us. The rate of increase, however, does not reflect a leveled playing field as promised by the program when it was first introduced.

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