Your reaction paper must be 500-words long and should cover:
1. The main points that were presented by each team
2. Your critical assessment of the arguments available. In this case I am not looking for your subjective opinion or how you "feel" about the debate.
3. Your opinion as to which team won the debate.
Be sure to include references and citations for any source that you use in writing your paperIntroduction {Abdulaziz Alqahtani}
Affirmative Action is the practice of discriminating against minorities. It singles out African American, Hispanics, Asians, and Women for different treatment. Yet, the treatment that Affirmative Action proscribes is unique in that it brings equality rather than disenfranchisement. The purpose of the policy is to help minorities have equal access to higher education, employment, and Government Contracts which has been historically denied to these groups.
One may ask why is Affirmative action needed today? Are not Universities, governments, and businesses free from discrimination? One need only look as far as Ferguson Missouri for an example of a place that could have used Affirmative Action. This town was criticized for having a police for that did not reflect the population it was serving. Only three out of fifty three officers were black when nearly 67% of the community was black (Ashkenas.) This leaves all of us with the question, could the tragedy of Ferguson been prevented if there had been a policy of hiring more people that represented the community rather than just reflect the preference of the white police chief?
Now, our friends across the aisle may believe that America no longer has a problem with race, but when one looks at the discrepancy between the representation of a minority group in the population of a town and the lack of representation in the police departments. It is clear that there is a problem. For example in "Dellwood Missouri the population is 79% black and the police department is 94% white, In Stone Park Illinois the population is 88% Hispanic and 83%, and the list goes on" (Ashkenas.) Therefore, it would appear as though America is in need of Affirmative Action to bring representation to disenfranchised minorities.
anticipated arguments and rebuttals. {Joshua Lewin} & {Robert Thomas}
1) We expect that the other side will focus on education, since it hits very close to home. They could possibly say that we no longer need to have quotas that mandate how many of what ethnicity is admitted into universities. If that is true, then revoking affirmative action policies would result in a student body that is proportional to the local population. In 2003 UCLA did just that. The "freshman class of 2006 had 96 African American Students, out of 5000" (NPR Staff.) 1.9% African American were admitted to the school, when the population of Los Angeles is 9% African American. Affirmative action programs help keep american schools diverse.
2) Team A will probably use the "Old wrong vs New wrong" argument. this argument states that by giving preferential treatment. However preferential treatment is not always the "new wrong". For example, Police forces around the country are overwhelmingly white. "More than 70% of people believe that a city's police force needs to reflect the city's population" (Weitzer.) If this was the case, wouldn't the gap between the police and the policed be smaller?
3) Another expected focus team A could present is affirmative action in the military, due to the fact that a member from them was actually in the military. So he could perhaps use his firsthand experience to develop an argument. But the Army has taken a huge step forward towards eliminating discrimination with the huge campaign of DIVERSITY. "Reporting only 10% of active duty officers are black and of 25 brigades none of them having a single commander in 2014. But good news for 2015, stating at least having two black commanders. Mentioning that there is no discrimination but rather lack to emphasis on recruiting and mentoring minority officers" (Crawford.)
Conclusion {Alejandro Mandujano}
Fellow peers, to be honest I do admit affirmative action in schools (or whatever topic they present) is important in society, but the fact that in many communities in the United States there is a lack of representation of minorities in the police force. This lack of representation can cause communities to lose confidence in their police departments, and this lack of diversity has played a role in many of the tragedies that occurred in the last few years. Please lets take a minute to remember those who have suffered and those who we have lost their lives such as; Jonathan Ferrell, Freddy Grey, Michael Brown just to name a few who have died at the hands of the police. Now, affirmative action alone is not the solution, but minority communities gaining representation and confidence in their police force through affirmative action is a step in the right direction.
Work Cited
Ashkenas, Jeremy, and Haeyoun Park. "The Race Gap in America's Police Departments." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.
Crawford, Vicki. "The Affirmative Action Military." The Observation Post. Observationpost, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.
NPR Staff. "What Happens Without Affirmative Action: The Story Of UCLA."NPR. NPR, 23 June 2013. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.
Weitzer, Ronald. "Diversity among Police Officers Is Key, but It Won't Solve the Problems with Policing." Www.theguardian.com. Theguardian, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.