Blacks and other minority groups have been wrongfully persecuted and punished and have suffered the indignities of discrimination. As Martin Luther King stated soeloquently in his “I Have a Dream” speech, blacks should be judged “…not by the colorof their skin, but by the content of their character.” Our American culture with itspolitical, legal, and social considerations, is struggling with the idea of white redemptionwhile offering minorities a more fair and proportionate representation in the workingcommunity. The result of this challenge is the policy of affirmative action and the manycontroversies it brings with it. The proponents of affirmative action argue that becauseof past injustices, minorities deserve special privileges. The critics of affirmative actionemphasize that minorities should earn their status and not receive special entitlements. Inmy opinion, affirmative action is a policy that unjustifiably discriminates against themajority, does not advance the cause of minorities in a meaningful way, and needs to beeliminated or in the alternative, experience a massive restructuring. “Affirmative Action: The Price of Preference”, maintains that affirmative actionhas not achieved its goals, and that in some areas, it has even backfired. Steeleacknowledges that blacks were wrongly persecuted, but stresses that as a result ofaffirmative action, “blacks now stand to lose more than they gain.” Although the intentof the policy is positive, the end result is a false effort at white redemption and an illadvised effort by the black mandate to gain power by accepting undeserved positions insociety. Steele points out that instead of focusing on developing black primary educationso that future jobs can be earned based on merit; affirmative action focuses onproportionate representation in higher education. It fails to address the real problem. Minorities have been denied eq...
