“Affirmative action” means positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and culture from which they have been historically excluded. The outcomes of public and private affirmative action programs in the past have been mixed yet they are probably negative on the balance. Affirmative actions in American society are popularly believed to have been a product of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.
In 2017, the federal Justice Department announced it was looking into “intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.” Although the tries to bring up these communities which have a history of seclusion, none have worked in a way that would please Dan Urman, Director of the Undergraduate Minor in Law and Public Policy. According to him, affirmative actions taken towards these groups will only be considered successful if the group in question is not just given an equal opportunity but also “the ability to walk through those gates together with the privileged groups.”
Several affirmative action cases like Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, and the 2013 Fisher v. The University of Texas has gained massive recognition and popularity among the youth who fight and protest for equality and freedom of opportunity.
Criticising the Supreme Court’s inability to give a just solution for this problem Urman, in an article by Northeastern University, said: “The justices would rather point to something like the ‘diversity rationale’ (that there is an inherent benefit to diversity), as opposed to what some people would say are structural inequalities.” He believes that the overarching structures in a democratic society like the Supreme Court itself is incapable of providing any necessary laws that protect these minority groups and their interests, let alone care about their welfare.
Devika Mulye