Diana Kofman-- Blog Post 3

Prompt: Affirmative Action creates reverse racism. Discuss.

Quite honestly, I have always been a little unclear about what the term "affirmative action" really meant, as it was never something discussed with me by either my parents, my guidance counselor, or by my teachers. Google defines it as "an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination,"- after reading that, I was able to see why it had never really been brought up during my life, as I realized it was not intended for someone like myself, who does not suffer from discrimination in any aspect of life. 

Overall, I do not believe that affirmative action creates reverse racism. When signing Executive Order 10925, President Kennedy made it very clear that it was to be required that government employers were no longer able to discriminate against any employee or job applicant based on their race, gender, or nationality. As a whole, this evened out the "playing field" for every single person living in the United States. No longer could any individual be told that they could not have the job they were applying for simply based on their race or gender. 

However, the decision to create affirmative action formed tensions between many of the different races. In 2003, the Supreme Court decided to uphold affirmative action in Grutter v. Bollinger, allowing colleges and universities to factor in an applicant's race in determining whether or not a student should be admitted to the school. This decision received a lot of backlash, as many thought that it favored the more diverse student, and that a student could now face the possibility of rejection from a school simply because of their race (which kind of goes against what affirmative action stands for). 

With all of this in mind, I still do not believe that affirmative action creates reverse racism, however, I do believe that it creates a reason for some to claim reverse racism, as for the majority of their lives, people who affirmative action does not apply to have potentially had a better quality of life along with the simple fact of always being a majority. What it does do is create a better sense of equality amongst all types of people, and for racial majorities, it may seem unfair because they are not the ones being helped, however, it does not create reverse racism.