The Racial Inequality in the United States under the Veil of the Affirmative Action

Explain the main reasons why affirmative action has failed to end racial inequality. [15]

One reason for Affirmative action’s failure is that the aim of Affirmative action is to produce equality of opportunity and not equality if results. Kennedy set up Affirmative action with the principle of providing equal opportunity to African Americans, which can be seen to work as they are given lower admissions to universities and other such assistance. It was not set to produce racial equality thus the fact that the unemployment rates for blacks was two times that of whites means is not considered a failure of Affirmative action, thus the programme will not end inequality as it is not set up to do it.

Another reason why affirmative action has failed to stop racial inequality is that the supreme court has limited it. In the cases Bakke and 2016 Fisher v Texas the Supreme Court have restricted affirmative action. The rulings have made it so that there can no longer be quotas in affirmative action programmes, as they create discrimination and inequality for whites. Thus, the removal of quotas along with other limitations to affirmative action has meant that universities and employers can’t engineer a system of equality of results for African Americans, which limits the programmes effects.

Furthermore, Affirmative action may have failed to end racial inequality due to the fact that it hasn’t been in place for long enough. Kennedy introduced the programme in the 60s hence it’s only been around for 50years, whereas African American repression has been present in the US for hundereds of years. It is also a highly complex issue with both social and political natures to the issue. Hence it can be argued that to assess the impact of the programme it has to be given more time to become effective.

An additional reason why affirmative action has failed to create equality is that politicians lack the politician will to support affirmative action. In the 2016, presidential campaign no candidate discussed Affirmative action, this shows that politicians do desire to reform or assist affirmative action, which is supported by the fact that Obama didn’t discuss Affirmative action under his presidency. Although the lack of discussion of AA could be due to the controversial nature of the issue and not in fact the lack of political will. As no president has discussed the issue of planned to reform the system it cannot make progress and thus will not remove inequality.

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