Intro
Paragraph 2: Court case
Paragraph 3: Background info
Paragraph 4: Conclusion
In the heated controversial topic Fisher V. University of Texas holds that affirmative action in schools is necessary to promote diversity. For many years minorities have been discriminated against and more likely to be at a disadvantage because of past events. As an illustration to this Grutter V. Bollinger and affirmative action act has been used to ensure equality.
Grutter V. Bollinger caused my conflict because it allowed schools to consider race as a factor in achieving racial diversity in schools. The Supreme Court held that “The equal protection clause does not prohibit the law schools narrowly tailored use of race in admission decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body”. The court explained the reason in using race as a factor is to make sure that all factors which will contribute to diversity is considered.
Grutter V. Bollinger. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.Oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_02_241/
Affirmative action caused my conflict because it is a policy which “gives opportunities to minorities, women, and any group that has been subject to discrimination in the past”.
Affirmative action pros and cons. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/affirmative-action-pros-and-cons
The Jim crow laws and Plessy V. Ferguson court case allowed my conflict to be what it is today because of past discrimination that happen in the past.
Jim Crow laws are what allowed discriminating against African Americans okay. Jim Crow laws are what said to be what “legalized segregation between blacks and whites”. I believe this caused my conflict because public institutions designated to African Americans including schools were not equal to white public institutions.
Jim Crow Laws. (n.d.).Retrieved from http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/jim-crow-laws.html
Plessy V. Ferguson was a case that “based their decision on the separate-but-equal doctrine, that separate facilities for blacks and whites satisfied the fourteenth amendment so long as they were equal”. This shows that blacks and whites wasn’t always consider equal because this court case was later overturned by Brown V. Board of education.
Plessy V. Ferguson. (n.d.).Retrieved from http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1895/1895_210
Annotated Bibliography: Affirmative Action
Hinrichs, Peter. Review of Economics & Statistics. Aug2012, Vol. 94 Issue 3, p712-722. 11p. 8 Charts, 2 Graphs
This article discusses how affirmative action bans on college could affect enrollment and the demographics of colleges. The author also explains how affirmative action is a big controversial issue today and he elaborate on how both sides of the topic feel. He states that the opposing side of affirmative action believe that affirmative action is a barrier in achieving a society without racism and can even hurt those who it attend to help. The supporters believe it will help open more doors for minorities. The author explains if affirmative action is ban in college it can decrease the amount of minorities at a college or make them feel unwelcomed and stop them from applying. He also argues that affirmative action doesn’t affect who go to college but instead what college they choose to go to.
I chose this article because it covers the specific area that my conflict revolves around which is how does affirmative action effect universities. What I found most helpful about this article is that the author talks about the different outcomes that could happen if affirmative action is ban. For example he states “If affirmative action ban shifts minorities away from 4yr colleges, it may increase the proportion that has an associate degree”. Another thing I found helpful is how he talk about the effect that affirmative action have on different type of institutions.
Card, David; Krueger, Alan B. Industrial & Labor Relations Review. Apr2005, Vol. 58 Issue 3, p416-434. 19p. 5 Charts, 3 Graphs.
In the article “Would the elimination of affirmative action affect highly qualified minority applicants?” David card and Alan Krueger discuss about how affirmative action ban affect some colleges between 1996 and 1998. They explained that in California and Texas the admission for minorities drop. In the text it says “At UC Berkeley the fraction of black and Hispanics applicants who were offered admission fell from one half to one quarter. At Texas A&M the admission rates of black and Hispanics applicants fell from 90% to 70%.
I chose this article because it shows why affirmative action is needed and how affirmative action bans effect schools. This relate to my conflict because it explore different scenarios on how affirmative action effect schools.
Payne, Angela R.; Thakkar, Bharat S. International Journal of Innovations in Business. 2012, Vol. 1 Issue 4, p274-292. 19p.
The “Hypocrisy of affirmative action: race and the labor market” discuss what affirmative action is and how it effect some minorities. The article explains how President Roosevelt enacted the fair employment practice committee to ensure that employment discrimination based on race was prohibited. Another thing this article explains is how the U.S. contradicts their selves when they say “All are created equal” because in that case we wouldn’t have past events such as slavery, slave codification, emancipation proclamation, and the Jim Crow laws. For example in the text it says “ Hypocrisy is clear when a nationalistic propaganda states that U.S. is committed to fairness, but its history of achieving fairness for all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender, has been far from perfect”.
I chose this article because the title was intriguing. I also chose this article because it talked about past events why affirmative action is needed. This article presents a broad overview on affirmative action it talked about past events that made affirmative action possible today and laws. This article relates to my conflict because it explains why affirmative action is needed and its effects on minorities. One of the main things that were helpful in this article was when they talked about how several presidents felt about affirmative action. For example Lyndon Johnson made a speech at Howard University on 1965 he said “Freedom is not enough. You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you have been completely fair. Thus, it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom of opportunity. We seek not but equally as a fact and equality as a result”.
Sacks, D., Thiel, P. (n.d.). The case against affirmative action.
In the magazine “ The case against affirmative action” discuss why affirmative action is not needed in schools or anywhere else because racism is very far pass us and we can’t keep looking in the past. It also states that if affirmative action haven’t ensure equality within these 25yrs its time for a new solution. The article also discuss if affirmative action should do anything it should help people at a disadvantage regardless of what race they might be.
I picked this article because it explained the opposing side of my conflict. This article focuses on a specific area which is affirmative action in schools. This article relates to my conflict because it talks about how affirmative action effect individuals who apply for schools. This article was helpful because it made me look at affirmative action from a different perspective.
Leonhardt, D., (2007, sept 30) The new affirmative action. The new york times.
This article was about how a African American female named Frances Harris was highly classified for U.C.L.A but wasn’t accepted because California got rid of affirmative action in government hiring and public university admissions. She was overlooked and didn’t get accepted but she met the requirements. This article also discusses how she was already at a disadvantaged due to her mother losing her job, father was ill, and her school shutdown during the middle of the semester. David Leonhardt believes that affirmative action shouldn’t rest solely on helping minorities but instead those that are at a disadvantaged and he also believe you should be able to observe those outside factors and have them in mind when reviewing students applications.
I chose this article because I got to see how affirmative action being ban effected one individual. This article relates to my conflict because it explains how affirmative action should operate and give different suggestions on how it can be improved.
Exploring themes: Affirmative action
This article discuss that affirmative action is very controversial. It explains that affirmative action could be look at from two perspectives. One perspective that it is necessary to have so that you can assure that minorities will receive an equal opportunity and the other perspective argues that affirmative action threatens America’s fundamental values. For example in the text it says “they have positioned affirmative action as unnecessary, unfair, and even un-American”. The author concludes that affirmative action is cloudy and it can lead to any direction as far as becoming more strict or lenient.
This article relates to my conflict because it discusses affirmative action and its effect on society. This article explains the reason why affirmative action is needed because of the mistreating of minorities in the past which put them at a disadvantage in today society. This article also help explain why Fisher V. University of Texas is so controversial because some people see it as reverse discrimination and unfair.
Citation
White, J. (2004). What is affirmative action?. Tulane Law Review, (6), 2117.
At university of Texas conservative students had a bake sale which displayed a table that says bake sale and have different prices for the same items depending on your race. This image was created to show how they believe affirmative action works. The creator’s purpose for making this image was to show how some people might actually be offended by affirmative action. Also another purpose they was trying to show was that affirmative action is still reverse racism/discrimination even if it’s supposedly be for the better. This image let me know it’s still some animosity about how the ruling of Fisher V. University of Texas case ended. This image also expands on the idea that many other people feel the same way as Abigail Fisher even people who are attending University of Texas today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/affirmative-action-bake-sale_n_4025362.html
In the discussion of the controversial topic of Fisher v. university of Texas I read two interesting articles from the new source called USA TODAY and CNN. Both new sources had similar view points and slightly different perspectives. USA TODAY and CNN was both similar because they talk about how the courts will make it harder for institutions to use policies to achieve diversity. Another reason why the new sources was similar because both articles argued the school defended it policy of considering race just as any other factor, In the CNN article “Supreme Court sidesteps big ruling on Texas affirmative action” it says “The Texas case, the school defended its policy of considering race as one of many factors, such as test scores, community service, leadership, and work experience, designed to create a diverse campus”.
The two new sources articles was different because in USA Today it talks about the student organizations groups on campus that supported UT, it says “ We remain steadfast in our support of the current admission process of UT”. It also explains how students believe the race consideration policy is necessary and help give fair chances. In the article it says “Prospective students will continue to benefit from an individualized admissions program that furthers equal opportunity”. In the CNN article it talks about how fisher thanks the justices for their consideration of racial policies being unconstitutional, she states “I’m grateful to the justices for moving the nation closer to the day when a student’s race isn’t used at all in college admissions”. Also the article explained how Clarence Thomas felt about the race policy he said “Although cloaked in good intentions the university’s racial tinkering harms the very people it claims to be helping”.
Both news articles receive their information from the court hearing itself. In USA TODAY they receive some of their info from students and press conferences while CNN only receive their info from press conferences. These articles are traditional news because they give their audience quick, late breaking, and important information.
Work Cited
Mears, Bill. “Supreme Court Sidesteps Big Ruling on Texas Affirmative Action.” CNN.com. CNN Politics, May-June 2013. Web. Sept.-Oct. 2013.
Psencik, Katey. “Both Sides Claim Victory in Fisher v. UT.” USA TODAY. USA TODAY, June-July 2013. Web. June-July 2013.
Conflict summary: Fisher V. University of Texas
Abigail Fisher applied to the University of Texas in 2008 and was denied admission. She claimed it was because of her skin color, so she filed a law suit “alleging that the university had discriminated against her because of her race”. Fisher disagreed with the university of Texas new policy. The policy stated once the university has admitted all students in the top 10 percent of their graduating class “for the remainder of the in-state freshman class the university would consider race as a factor in admission” stated by The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Fisher claimed that the use of race as consideration in admission decisions violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment and a violation of 42 U.S.C sections 1983. The university then argued that the use of race in their admission decisions was created to promote a greater diversity in their school system. In a 7-1 decision the court held that using race as an admission factor was made in good faith, so they vacated and remanded the fifth circuit ruling.
Fisher v. university of Texas. (n.d.). retrieved from http://www.oyez.org
Richey, Warren (February 21, 2012). “Affirmative action in college admissions goes back before Supreme Court”. The Christian Science Monitor.
Information Literacy: Conflicts 