I. A Historical Analysis. part 1 Essay - 3,164 words

I. A historical analysis. 1. The efforts of blacks to obtain an education. II. Examination of the current practice of affirmative action.


1. The affirmative action effort in higher education systems: a. the criticisms of affirmative action; b. the role of school officials in fulfilment of affirmative action programs; c. affirmative action within selected institutions of higher education. III. A discussion of the current position of blacks.


Should there be a distinction between African Americns and Black Immigrants in regards to Affirmative action at Ivy League colleges They say that the programs of affirmative action have been upheld as a remedy for past injustice. The historical grounds for discrimination based on race were slavery. Thomas Jefferson was the author of the words about equality of all citizens. Thanks to the Constitution and its words that all men are equal in the eyes of our Creator, people started to defend their constitutional rights. Thus the Court constitute discrimination on race, only in 1954 the US Supreme Courts decision in Brown v. Board of Education marked an important point in the history of racial divisions in the United States. It made equal opportunity in education abolished sanctions for segregation by race.


Affirmative action began forty years ago. The Supreme Courts treatment appeared at that time when people began to understand their equal rights in the world. The most wildly discussed cases were about racial and sex discrimination. In 1964 - 1965, President Johnson came to the thought that it was not enough to remove legal barriers confronting minorities. It was needed to take affirmative action to help them overcome decades of prior discrimination. So, on September 24, 1965, he issued an executive order to take affirmative action to recruit, higher and promote more racial minorities. Affirmative action has been created as a policy with the purpose to increase the opportunities for usually discriminated groups that are characterized by race, gender or physical disability. Affirmative action usually focuses on education, employment, government contracts, health care, or social welfare.


The groups now regularly designated for favorable treatment are Black, Latinos and Native Americans. The programs have been praised for increasing minority access to education and professional careers. In colleges there are minority scholarship programs and advancement opportunities admissions. These programs have been serving as a beacon of hope for American youths and the best demonstration of nation's commitment to including African-Americans in the American dream. But Affirmative action does not mean lowering standards of excellence nor does it mean that unqualified students will be graduated. According to the programs students from minorities are given an opportunity to receive additional training through seminars and conferences.


It helps to strengthen their backgrounds and increase their promotability. Race discrimination has more well-defined features. People can be treated differently because of their color of skin, ethnic traditions and customs, their way of behavior. Affirmative Action were expected to become neo-Reconstruction, but with the multiculturalism movement in the 1970s, they became more an open embracing of diversity in all forms. This definition of diversity was not only limited to race. It included gender, ethnicity, and, more recently, class, and nationality. All communities in American society have their own migration experiences; because America is considered to be "a nation of immigrants." The African-American Migration Experience explains the extraordinary diversity of African Americans living in the United States today.


African Americans, Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Central Americans and South Americans of African descent, as well as Africans and Afro-Caribbeans born in Europe live side by side, each group bringing its specificities, culture, and sense of identity, common and not-so-common histories. But nowadays African-American community is in crisis. In the early 1970s Shirley Wilcher , now the executive director of the American Association for Affirmative Action, had noticed a rise in the number of black students from Africa and the Caribbean, and a downturn in admissions of native blacks. Having examined the data, she came to conclusion that among students at 28 top U.S. universities, about 27 percent were the representatives of black students of first- and second-generation immigrant origin. The data were about twice higher to the representativs of the national population of blacks their age (13 percent). Within the Ivy League, immigrant-origin students made up 41 percent of black freshmen.


But there was no a definitive answer why the change was happening. Camille Charles, a University of Pennsylvania professor, wrote in the American Journal of Education that "folks I know personally who have worked in admissions have told me that they weren't surprised." Some people say that according to the data from a national survey ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: affirmative action, immigrant, black students, american, black american

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