Affirmative action is the name given to programs that try to correct past and ongoing discriminations against women, racial minorities, and others in the work force and in education. The principal goal of affirmative action is to attempt to create more diversity and equal opportunities in jobs or schools that used to be all or mostly male, white, or both. Affirmative Action programs have been in place only a little over thirty years due to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is supposed to be a program designed to end racism, but isn't it really justifying racism by its own actions? The policies of affirmative action judge individuals solely by their skin color, gender, etc Rather than fostering harmony and integration, these preferences, based on reverse discrimination, further divide the populace. Over the past thirty years colleges, universities, employers, and the government have been discriminating in favor of racial minorities in admission, hiring, contracting, and financial aid. But only recently have the establishments been forced to rethink these policies in the face of an emerging public debate over affirmative action.
Supporters of affirmative action claim that the racial preferences help the "disadvantaged." In reality, as several studies have observed, these preferences primarily benefit minority applicants from middle and upper class backgrounds. If preferences were truly meant to remedy the problem of equality and disadvantages, they would be based upon those standards, and not on the basis of appearance.
Another claim for affirmative action is that it promotes diversity among social establishments. This same assertion of diversity has also led colleges to create segregated dormitories, segregated education programs, and in some schools even segregated graduation ceremonies. When will we see an end? Is this push for variety not returning us back to the times when black kids had to attend a different school than their white next-door neighbors? If diversity were really the goal, then admission preferences would be given based on character differences, not on the basis of race.