Affirmative Action Essay -- American Government, Minorities

â€Å"It is not about assuring equality of opportunity but artificially that is, judicially enforcing equality of outcome† (Williams 69). John F. Kennedy first introduced the term affirmative action during the era of the Cold War and the civil rights movement. The term is defined as integration of different race, sex, and country of origin into universities and employment (Ana 30). The beginning of affirmative action started with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by the Johnson Administration. The Civil Rights Act allowed African Americans to attend desegregated schools and become eligible to vote. The 1971 Philadelphia Plan was implemented by the Nixon administration, which called for quota systems to ensure that a certain number of underrepresented races are met to achieve what is called â€Å"diversity.† By the late 1970s, it was extended to college admissions where controversy surrounding the use of affirmative action was in question by whites and the Supreme Court. Alth ough many college admissions officials feel that affirmative action is the only way to promote diversity, these policies should not be used as a deciding factor in college admissions because they are a form of reverse discrimination, hurtful to students, and unconstitutional in law. Affirmative action was introduced as a way to promote diversity and ensure fairness. College admissions officials feel as if the only way to achieve diversity in their campuses is to discriminate overrepresented ethnic groups such as Caucasians and Asians for minorities of African American and Native American background. An example of the use of reverse discrimination was the University of Michigan-Ann Harbor admissions policy. On December 14, 2000, The New York Times did an article on the proce... ...sures fairness to all because students who graduate in the top ten are researched to have higher grades and graduation rates. The ten percent law has improved economic and geographical diversity because it draws the top students out of every part of Texas. The Austin Campus now has 853 high schools, previously 616, represented in the university. The Hispanic population has increased by 29% while the African American population has increased by 32% (Texas 8). The program also allows equal opportunity for all races because in order to have the benefit of attending the best schools in Texas, graduating in the top ten is a necessity. George W. Bush even stated that race-neutral policies are more successful than the policies of affirmative action. Affirmative action is an issue that needs to be educated to people because it affects everyone at some point in their life.