Picking_Sides_On_Affirmative_Action

Picking Sides On Affirmative Action Picking Sides on Affirmative Action What do children of longtime donors, scholarship athletes, white students at predominantly black high schools, northern Michigan residents, men who want to be nurses and children of alumni have in common' Just like blacks, Hispanics and American Indians, they get an edge on the competition when they apply for admission to the University of Michigan. This edge is called Affirmative Action. To understand Affirmative Action we must kn0w what, how, and why it even exists. Affirmative action is the set of public policies and initiatives designed to help eliminate past and present discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, is under attack. • Originally, civil rights programs were enacted to help African Americans become full citizens of the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution made slavery illegal; the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law; the Fifteenth Amendment forbids racial discrimination in access to voting. The 1866 Civil Rights Act guarantees every citizen "the same right to make and enforce contracts ... as is enjoyed by white citizens ... " • In 1896, the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld a "separate, but equal" doctrine that proved to be anything but equal for affirmative, action, students, michigan, points, race, white, university, rights, minority, high, discrimination, u-m, supreme, schools, president, equal, civil, black, because, act, 20, voting, uaw, tyus, school, scholarship, said, residents, racial, policy, make, law, decision, court