Essay About Affirmative Action And Black Africans

Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action
Affirmative Action?
Affirmative Action has been frivolously debated throughout the past 135
years. Citizens of the United States question whether the government should
grant certain advantages to races that have endured bigotry in the past.
This plan goes by the name of Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is a
federally subsidized program that encourages universities and other
educational institutions, to accept a greater number of minority students.
Throughout the years, Affirmative Action and the different advocates have
changed, but racial inequality remains stagnant.
Affirmative action has various proponents and opponents, both of whom seek
the eventual goal of an integrated, educated middle class society. The
opponents of Affirmative Action argue that it is not the responsibility of
the current majority to make up for prior actions; and imposing these
types of programs would be a form of so-called, reverse discrimination. The
proponents argue that it is everybodys responsibility to create a society,
which gives everybody an equal opportunity regardless of race, and the only
way to ascertain this goal is through Affirmative-Action programs. How can
this nation come together and disregard the color of a persons skin? Will we
reach this goal by subsidizing programs that assist minorities, or shall we
sit and wait for time to establish equal opportunity for all?
The history of Affirmative Action dates back to the days when the nation
attempted to rebuild its society after the civil war. Reconstruction
attempted to establish virtuous relations between the white Europeans and
black Africans that made up a large part of the American society. The nation
was torn on how to establish these relations.
Many call Reconstruction the low point of race relations in the United
States. This era included the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment,
defining national citizenship so as to include blacks. This Amendment passed
Congress in June 1866 and was ratified, despite rejection by most Southern
states (July 28, 1868). In response to the newfound freedom of African
Americans, whites incited numerous accounts of violence. White hatred of the
black race created an era that experienced the most lynchings in the history
of the United States. Whites also began using contemporary forms of labor
exploitation to maintain control of their socio-economic advantage.
Something needed to be done so that the nation would not split at its seams.
One side argued that time was the only solution to racial problems. Creating
government programs would make Africans dependent and give them an unfair
advantage. “They were said to be fat state subsidies that unfairly penalized
innocent whites and taught blacks self-destructive habits of indolence and
independence.” This argument was sustained by the Democratic Party who
expressed their thinking by publicizing material, which endorsed their
belief. One such example is a cartoon that was created in 1866, which pokes