Society’s Perception of Affirmative Action

I both agree, and disagree with what the author is saying in this article. He starts by saying that our chances of succeeding are influenced by the generation of our family that came before us, and by our net subject of friends and acquaintances. He applies the term social capital, to this. He then goes on to say that the government collects to take responsibility for ensuring that everyone has an equal luck get a job, be accepted into a university, or go up in their company.The next five paragraphs are spent disceptation against color-blind absolutism, that is, the idea that we should ignore race altogether. To this point in the article, I could non agree more. I conceptualize most rational persuasion people learn from their parents, older siblings and even their extended families. They see the mistakes that their families do and want to do better. In my family for instance, I am the youngest of six children. My parents grew up in farming communities and had slight or no educ ation. I was the root in the family to go straight through high school and graduate. wholly the four youngest of six children veritable a high school diploma or equivalent, and only myself and one of my brothers has had any education beyond that. I see this as a natural evolution that takes several generations. close to of my older siblings did not see the value of an education, or of planning your rising and setting goals. While I saw the mistakes they made, it took me several years to discover that my success was dependent on setting goals, and the actions I took to strain them. I also agree with the author assertion that society cannot be completely colorblind.We do not need to pretend that we are not different, we need to accept and embrace apiece others differences. We need to recognize and respect the each others cultures. Color and race will forever be used, just as height and weight are used to describe people. There is postal code wrong with acknowledging our diffe rences, as long as we do not dig those differences as negatives. I have to disagree with the remainder of the article. He has taken offense, apparently, to the perception that blacks need to be given preferential treatment to achieve a degree of success.I believe that he is arguing that positive action is demeaning to blacks, but what he should be arguing against is not affirmative action, but white societys perception of affirmative action. Used as it was intended, affirmative action does not give minorities preferential treatment, it gives them an opportunity to make out with other applicants of equal qualifications. Human nature being what it is, opportunities do not always present themselves solely because of a persons skills, qualifications, or persistence.I of late read that a high percentage of positions are filled not through newspaper ads, or recruiting agencies, but through word of mouth. The stovepipe place for employers to look for new employees is often from their current employees. If this is true, then unless your work place is already racially diverse, most of your new hires are credibly to come from similar racial or ethnic background as the majority of your workforce. Breaking this cycle takes a conscious effort. I believe this is the case in organized labor organizations.Perhaps there is no conscious effort to keep blacks or minorities out, but a swear to get ones family and friends in, so that they too may enjoy the benefits of a healthy job. I believe I benefited from affirmative action when I fall in the union apprenticeship program. Had it not been for the pressure applied on unions to diversify, there is little doubt in my mind that someones son or nephew would have received that position. And that person would most likely have been a white male. The role of affirmative action is to level the playing field, not to tilt it in the direction of minorities.If it is improperly used, we essential not blame the program we must blam e the people that are administering it. Universities should not lower standards, but support academically qualified minorities to apply and support programs that help increase the pool of qualified applicants. While it is true that an individuals success depends largely on that individuals have drive and self determination, history has taught us that things are not firing to get better without some governmental intervention.