In Houston Community Proposition 209 Has Stirred Up Public Debate... Essay - 614 words

In Houston community proposition 209 has stirred up public debate and it should have because an important issue is voted on. No less important, however, the fact that wording of it has caused much of the uproar. The case has shown how public is fallible in face of language tricks. Joint polls conducted by University of Houston and Rice University has shown the vital importance of the vote wording: "shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to anyone on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin" is expected to produce yes with the majority of 70 percent, whereas "to end the use of affirmative action for women and minorities" is likely to generate no. The difference is striking, but more striking is susceptibility of public opinion to manipulation by the mere wording. Orwellian language can corrupt thought comes to mind, except that in the Houston voting, it is language that instills desired, readymade opinion in public that is too lazy to come to its own conclusions. Let us look at adjective affirmative that became so tightly attached to certain policies of government, particularly in the field of employment by federal contractors.


Third College Edition of Websters New World dictionary has, among other, the following definitions of adjective affirmative: 1. saying that something stated is true, 2. (b) optimistic or hopeful, not negative or cynical. In Orwells 1984, a novel describing life of a totalitarian state, no word used by the ruling party was ideologically neutral. Affirmative action would fit very well in 1984 because it has a connotation of popular support, no matter that the policy actually means a reverse discrimination. Affirmative action is something a commoner does not have to think about, but enjoy and support.


A far less appealing would be something like Reverse discrimination ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: affirmative action, reverse discrimination, affirmative, negative consequences, houston

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