I could only come up with five points but there's a lot to talk about, so it should be enough.
End Affirmative Action
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Keep it
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The USA is a highly
competitive society; this has a positive dimension as it provides incentives
for people to strive to achieve their goals and ambitions. By using AA
incentives are reduced for the less successful in society to better
themselves and they will become heavily dependent on government programmes
rather than actually working towards their goals. Serves as a disincentive.
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Individuals cannot
strive to achieve their goals if they’re at a disadvantage because of their
race. Political authorities have got a responsibility to provide sufficient
resources in deprived districts populated with minorities so they have the
same opportunity as whites to achieve their goals. There is a role for
government in helping people to help themselves.
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AA is seen as a type
of welfare, which allows minorities to claim they have been put at a
disadvantage because of past discrimination in order to benefit from AA.
These “disadvantages” are also faced by other minorities who have prospered
in recent years despite not benefiting from AA, such as Southeast Asian and
Indian students who do well and are usually disadvantaged because of poor
English communicational skills. This demonstrates that values like obedience,
diligence and commitment lead to success even for those who are disadvantaged
and AA is just an excuse to be lazy.
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However, its wrong to
assume that minorities in the US lay claim that they’re disadvantaged just so
they can benefit from AA as there have been increasing efforts of black
communities helping themselves. They only turn to help from the government
when their small community with limited resources can’t overcome obstacles of
their own. E.g. communities have created initiatives designed to help young
people like Harlem Children’s Zone in NYC which aims to provide guidance for
young mothers, relationship counseling and summer activities.
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AA exists as a form of
compensation for past discrimination, which has made certain racial groups
suffer. However, past discrimination cannot be the primary reason for some
racial groups suffering, it all depends on lifestyle choices made in
communities, such as drug or alcohol abuse. In the No Excuses book, the authors argue people who have equal skills
and knowledge will have roughly equal earnings regardless of race regardless
of what discrimination they may have experienced in the past.
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The left has rejected No Excuses’ claim that people with
the same knowledge and skills will earn equally no matter the race. Some
employers continue to not consider applicants living in certain districts
despite them having appropriate skills and qualifications, because of this,
unemployment among black communities can be as high as 50% in New York and
Chicago (2 of the wealthiest cities)
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Moderates suggest that
a significant proportion of the groups that benefit from AA have prospered
over the past 40 years, and thus, the policy is no longer required. E.g. the
proportion of African-Americans in white collar jobs is now over 70%
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However, AA has
benefited American society a lot thus far, so it can benefit society even
further by creating more levels of diversity. It makes no sense to abandon a
project that has been successful when it is incomplete. Also, blacks are
still lagging behind the white majority population in many aspects of
society.
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By giving a preference
or an advantage to one group leads inevitably to disadvantage for another
group, this is reverse discrimination. You cannot end racial inequality with
something that inevitably encourages racial inequality.
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Regardless, it remains
one of the most effective means so far devised by the government to deliver
the promise of equal opportunity. And it has been proven to work as
demonstrated by the fact that the number of African-American’s completing
high school is now as high as 86%, an increase from 39% in the 1960s
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