Affirmative Action Essay -- essays research papers

Affirmative Action is any effort taken to expand opportunity for women or racial, ethnic and national origin minorities by using membership in those groups that have been subject to discrimination as a consideration. The Fourteenth Amendment states that no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. As a result, Affirmative action is not consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment. In this essay, I will first discuss the violation of Affirmative Action against the Fourteenth Amendment. Second, how Affirmative Action helps one group of people while leaving out the other groups of people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Affirmative Action has occurred in several cases throughout the Americans history and the case that I will be referring to is Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. This case presents a challenge to the special admissions program of the Medical School of the University of California at Davis, which is designed to assure the admission of a specified number of students from certain minority groups (253). In 1973 and 1974, Allan Bakke, a white male, who applied twice to the Medical School of the University of California at Davis, was rejected even though his grade point average and MCAT scores were higher than most of the applicants. With the fact that applicants that were admitted with the special admissions program had lower scores, Bakke alleged that the Medical School’s special admissions program operated to exclude him from the school on the basis of his race (258). This, he stated, violates his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the F ourteenth Amendment. The Equal Protection Clause states that â€Å"No State shall†¦deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.† The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal (260). If everybody is guaranteed the same protection under the Constitution, then no one should be treated differently at the University. Hence, Affirmative Action violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendmen... ...t wrong doings then this would lead to reverse discrimination.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even though Affirmative Action was created to help the less fortunate people to have a chance to succeed in the society, it still separates one certain groups from another thus giving one certain groups more opportunity to succeed and leaving the other groups behind. Because of the special program in the Medical School of the University of California at Davis, Bakke was rejected because of his race. This decision made by the University is discrimination. Therefore, Affirmative Action violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, the existent of Affirmative Action is not consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment. I strongly disagree on having Affirmative Action even though it can help the less fortunate people but also at the same time discriminate the others. It all started with the discrimination during the earlier years and now it is the time to fix the wrong. â€Å"Having a diverse college cause to learn different things about the world, you need different people with different opinion or perspective.† (President of Princeton).