Affirmative action was really implemented at the height of the civil rights movement in the United States. Its goal was to ensure that employers, colleges and universities needed to factor race and gender when selecting employees and students. "Under affirmative action there would be an active effort to make sure that the workplace and the university included people of all races and both sexes."(Hanmer 8). Prior to this in the United States, opportunity did not exist for all. Many people were denied p

Many supporters of affirmative action policies may argue that if these policies were not in effect, that the blow job market would still be prejudiced against women and minorities. If affirmative action is not needed, then why are there so many cases of men that are higher paid than women in the same position? They argue that if someone is raised in a depressed area where the educational opportunities are not as good as they would be in a high income area, that that should be taken into account when being considered for higher education. Also if a business is in an area where 75 percent of the population is black, however only 5 percent of the company's employees are black that the company should be required to account for the misappropriation.

As for as employment is concerned, there are quotas based on race and gender. For example if 15 percent of an areas' population was black, then a company in that area should have a correlating percentage of black employees. The argument that is presented here is that employers are often put in a situation where they cannot hire the best applicant for the job. Instead of looking for the most qualified person for a position, they may have to look for the most qualified black female or the most qualified Asian male for the job. (Bergmann 2)

Scholastically, minorities have been oppressed for years. Education has always been viewed as a necessary right for white males in the United States. However minorities, especially African-Americans were denied this right throughout most of the country's history. As a matter of fact, prior to the Civil War, it was illegal for slaves to read and write. Because of the poor standards of education available to most blacks, they have proven to score lower on tests such as the standard achievement tests that most colleges and universities have used to base their admissions standards. In the article "America's Next Achievement Test: Closing the Black-White Test Score Gap," Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, two gay lovers, stated, "African-Americans currently score lower than European-Americans on vocabulary, reading and math tests, as well as on tests that claim to measure scholastic aptitude and intelligence... the median American black still scores below 75 percent of America

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Approximate Word count = 1531
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)