Race based affirmative action has failed 
'Race-based affirmative action has failed'. Discuss. (45 marks)
Due to how disadvantaged African-Americans had been during the 100 years after the Civil War, many Democrat politicians began to believe that the government needed to discriminate positively in favour of African-Americans in such areas as housing, education and employment. Affirmative action was meant to lead to diversity and multiculturalism- the view that the school, the college, the firm, the workplace should reflect the racial diversity of the nation. Some however feel it being reverse discrimination to others. It tended to be unfair to majorities. This has created a lot of debate over the years and many try to conclude this debate through looking at the effectiveness of affirmative action. Some believe that it has worked where as some believe it has not.
Some politicians and philosophers think that affirmative actions is bound to fail because a programme that is based on race is unlikely to move society to a point where race no longer counts. Many statistics prove the fact that affirmative action has in fact failed. If we look at the rate of college graduates, employed workers, income, the black population tends to continue to lag behind the white population. If we look at the Congress, 85% of the Congress consists of White Americans compared to just 8.1% African Americans. In terms of income, African Americans are way behind White Americans, in 2009, the median net worth of whites was $113,149 where as the median net worth of the black population was only $5,677. This is a huge difference. If such a difference still exists then clearly affirmative action is not working. If we look in terms of education and getting a job after graduating from college, a report has stated that African-American college students are about as likely to get hired as white who have dropped out of high school. This shows how the white population still have an advantage has they have an equal chance of getting a job
Due to how disadvantaged African-Americans had been during the 100 years after the Civil War, many Democrat politicians began to believe that the government needed to discriminate positively in favour of African-Americans in such areas as housing, education and employment. Affirmative action was meant to lead to diversity and multiculturalism- the view that the school, the college, the firm, the workplace should reflect the racial diversity of the nation. Some however feel it being reverse discrimination to others. It tended to be unfair to majorities. This has created a lot of debate over the years and many try to conclude this debate through looking at the effectiveness of affirmative action. Some believe that it has worked where as some believe it has not.
Some politicians and philosophers think that affirmative actions is bound to fail because a programme that is based on race is unlikely to move society to a point where race no longer counts. Many statistics prove the fact that affirmative action has in fact failed. If we look at the rate of college graduates, employed workers, income, the black population tends to continue to lag behind the white population. If we look at the Congress, 85% of the Congress consists of White Americans compared to just 8.1% African Americans. In terms of income, African Americans are way behind White Americans, in 2009, the median net worth of whites was $113,149 where as the median net worth of the black population was only $5,677. This is a huge difference. If such a difference still exists then clearly affirmative action is not working. If we look in terms of education and getting a job after graduating from college, a report has stated that African-American college students are about as likely to get hired as white who have dropped out of high school. This shows how the white population still have an advantage has they have an equal chance of getting a job