Free Custom «Affirmative Action Case Study» Essay Paper

Since the ancient times, women have been looked down and their capability under estimated in various fields such as education, employment opportunities and business. This discrimination has been entrenched even in some institutional laws (Laird, 2009). The following is a case study of a young white woman called Abigail Fisher. She was not admitted by the university just because of her race. The case was that Abigail Fisher fruitlessly applied for a bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin. She alleged that the university admission rules and policies violate the Federal Civil Rights Statutes and the Equal Protection Clause. The university, on the other hand, argued that its admission system not only considers a student marks but also the students’ race along with some other factors (Laird, 2009).

She moved to court to seek redress under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States federal constitution. She argued that the university had not honored the Equal Protection Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment. Abigail case reached the Supreme Court and her case was determined to be justifiable. She was granted an inferior jurisdiction demanding the record of her case (Laird, 2009). This was after the lower courts had upheld the university decision. The five bench judges had voted in agreement with the university policy. This policy allowed an applicant's race to be one of the key elements to be used in reaching an admission decision.

 

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The university’s policies and rules are in total contrast with the fourteenth amendment. Abigail case can be viewed form an affirmative point of view. Affirmative action seeks to redress her case so as to eradicate this kind of discrimination from the institutional policies (Laird, 2009).

High number of court cases that deals with affirmative action is commonly associated with education. Therefore, most thoughts are normally based on that sentiment. The affirmative action has both positive and negative implications (Kranz, 2002). These implications are normally backed by valid opinions from different prominent groups that are visible in the public and media arena.

Affirmative action is necessary in order to ensure equal treatment regardless of sex, race, nationality or religion prevails in the education sector. The affirmative action ensures that a significant number of minority students are admitted in areas of study that are competitive. Areas they would otherwise be unable to qualify because of their disadvantaged position in society (Kranz, 2002). This is because certain sex and race are normally Socio-economically disadvantaged because of sex, oppression and racism. Affirmative action enhances presences of diversity in education and system and at the workplace. Diversity would be absence were it, not for affirmative action. The policy also strives to address complex social economic issues that have been evident in United States of America.

Affirmative action has been accused of furthering racism. Even though, there should be equality in treatment. It is normally impossible to conceive that as likelihood. This because some groups already possess advantages that affirmative action was intended to address. Affirmative action propagates segregation while claiming to enhance equality during job hiring or admission to the university (Kranz, 2002). The policy has also been opposed on the fact that it benefits specific groups while hurting others. In addition, most people beliefs that minorities admitted into the elite universities through affirmative action tend to be unprepared in meeting academic expectations. This makes them drop out before they graduate. Taking a closer look at Abigail’s case, I disagree with the court findings. Race should not be a key factor when determining student eligibility to a university. Race is only supposed to be used as a means of ensuring diversity in public or private universities is promoted. This means that race should be the last thing in determining the eligibility into the university.