Affirmative Action - Public Opinion vs. Policy :: Affirmative Action Racism Discrimination Essays

approving Action - Public Opinion vs. PolicyWhen Justin Ketcham, a white college student from the suburbs, thinks about approbatory action, he thinks about what happened when he displace out lettersseeking scholarships so he could attend Stanford University after being acceptedduring his senior year of high school.The organizations that wrote back told himtheir money was mute for women or minorities. To Americans like Ketcham,its a matter of fairness. The average white male will claim that its not fairto attempt to rebalance scales by balancing them the separate way. Students likeKetcham are also more likely to claim that affirmative action is a programgeared towards curtailing workplace prejudices that really dont existanymore.But when Hillary Williams, a black insurance company manager from theinner-city, thinks about affirmative action, she thinks about the time she hadto train three consecutive white male bosses for a demarcation that no one evenapproached her about filling. To her, its also a question of fairness.African-Americans like Hillary feel that there is just no other was besidesaffirmative action to level the playing field in certain businesses.And so thedisparity in public opinion begins. A racially-divided America creates separategroups, which Affirmative Action issue taps a fundamental cleavage in AmericanSociety (Gamson and Modigliani 170)--each with their own view of affirmativeaction on diametrical sides of the line. Government attempts to create policybased upon the voice of the people but affirmative action seems to present analmost un-solvable dilemma. Traditionally, it had been a policy that wasgreatly scrutinized for its quotas and alleged unfairness towards Blacks, but atthe same time it had also been praised for its inherent ability to helpminorities gets jobs they deserve but could not obtain otherwise. So how do wereach a happy medium so-to-speak? In American political culture, it appearsas though individualism and egalitaria nism are values that find themselves onopposite ends of the political battlefield.In a complex world of political ideology and political culture are sets ofvalues and principles that are widely endorsed by politicians, educators, themedia and other opinion leaders that make up the definition of what is to beAmerican (Feldman and Zaller). Some favor the values of individual freedom,especially individual scotch freedom, over other values, especially equalityand popular sovereignty (egalitarianism). These people are labeled Conservatives.The other side of the spectrum consider themselves as Liberals (Feldman andZaller).Because we live in a meritocracy created by the strong forces ofcapitalism, there is a tendency for people to fall behind either in the economyor in the academician community.