Affirmative Action Speech

It is an example of speech writing: This house believes that Affirmative Action policies should be eliminated because these policies continue to encourage discriminatory acts and/or racism. In the article, Reverse racism or How the Pot Got to Call the Kettle Black, Stanley Fish states "In this country whites once set themselves apart from blacks and claimed privileges for themselves while denying them to others" (pg. 128). This statement provides us with a plain definition of racism. Fish then goes on to state, "Now, on the basis of race, blacks are claiming special status and reserving for themselves privileges they deny to others. Isn't one as bad as the other," (pg. 128)? I will answer this question by looking at the original purpose of Affirmative Action and then refer back to Fish's plain definition of racism.

If we look at the purpose of Affirmative Action, we will discover how these policies are a form of racism. Affirmative Action can be defined by the United States Commission on Civil Rights as "Any measure, beyond simple termination of a discriminatory practice, adopted to correct or compensate for past or present discrimination or to prevent discrimination from recurring in the future" (Bruno, 1995, p.1). This definition clearly states that Affirmative Action is supposed to reimburse persons of past or present discrimination as well as prevent any discriminatory acts from recurring in the future. Yet, this purpose of Affirmative action has not been met and discriminatory acts and/or racism continues to exist in corporate America and higher education. Madeline E. Heilman states in her article, Affirmative action's contradictory consequences. (The Affirmative Action Debate: What's Fair in Policy and Programs?), "As long as it is thought to bring women and minorities into the organizational mainstream through preferential procedures based predominantly on group membership, it seems likely to continue to perpetuate the very conditions that gave rise to the problems it was designed to resolve," (pg. 105). This statement points out how Affirmative Action has not ended discriminatory practices but continues to encourage them. Affirmative Action does not look at a person's talents and abilities but looks at their race or gender to determine acceptance.

To answer Fish's question, "Isn't one as bad as the other?" The answer is yes. If Affirmative Action provides people privileges because of their race or gender, then we are providing these persons special status while denying them to others, for example white males are denied these "special privileges". If one person or a group of persons are denied these "special privileges," then Affirmative Action encourages discriminatory act and/or racism.

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