State Issue: Affirmative action critic trying to end policies in state
Nebraska is being targeted to end the use of affirmative action by public colleges and state and local agencies. Nebraska is one of five states being targeted and there are many other states in the country that have ended this policy already. With times changing racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination isn’t beginning to be such a large widespread problem as it previously has been. Nebraskans tend to want to help females and minorities and not help gain opportunities of white men. White men are always favored in situations and women still only receive 70 cents to a man’s dollar so it seems that white men do not need any more help. In Nebraska the problems of affirmative action are not as big of a deal compared to other places in the United States like the south because we do not have that many people of different racial or ethnic background. Although we are gaining a more diverse population it is still mostly dominated by Caucasians. Nebraska was a good state to target because of its lack of different ethnic background and its tendencies to be fair.
Voters of Nebraska seem to mostly be in favor of abolishing affirmative action but were not in favor of a program that offered in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants. To me that seems to be an obvious reaction of Nebraskans because of the number of meat packing plants in our cities. The workers are already thought of as taking money from Nebraskan workers so most Nebraskans have a negative attitude towards illegal immigrants. Nebraskans are usually conservative and place high values on honesty and fairness. Affirmative action doesn’t need such great emphasis if they are already practicing fair job hiring and college applications. It is said that they want the best qualified people for the job. I personally wouldn’t think of people in terms of race if I was to hire someone for a job I would think of what that person could contribute to the company.
Nebraska is being targeted to end the use of affirmative action by public colleges and state and local agencies. Nebraska is one of five states being targeted and there are many other states in the country that have ended this policy already. With times changing racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination isn’t beginning to be such a large widespread problem as it previously has been. Nebraskans tend to want to help females and minorities and not help gain opportunities of white men. White men are always favored in situations and women still only receive 70 cents to a man’s dollar so it seems that white men do not need any more help. In Nebraska the problems of affirmative action are not as big of a deal compared to other places in the United States like the south because we do not have that many people of different racial or ethnic background. Although we are gaining a more diverse population it is still mostly dominated by Caucasians. Nebraska was a good state to target because of its lack of different ethnic background and its tendencies to be fair.
Voters of Nebraska seem to mostly be in favor of abolishing affirmative action but were not in favor of a program that offered in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants. To me that seems to be an obvious reaction of Nebraskans because of the number of meat packing plants in our cities. The workers are already thought of as taking money from Nebraskan workers so most Nebraskans have a negative attitude towards illegal immigrants. Nebraskans are usually conservative and place high values on honesty and fairness. Affirmative action doesn’t need such great emphasis if they are already practicing fair job hiring and college applications. It is said that they want the best qualified people for the job. I personally wouldn’t think of people in terms of race if I was to hire someone for a job I would think of what that person could contribute to the company.
1 comment:
Kate, I’m really glad you decided to write about this topic because I think it is a topic that gets pushed to the side a lot. There are so many different groups of people that we have to take into consideration when talking about affirmative action. I think it’s interesting that you pointed out that many Nebraskans feel that immigrant workers are taking our jobs. How middle-class or upper class white men would take a job in a meat packing plant? Although those workers are illegal, they fill the jobs that keep our society running. I think when employers are hiring workers; they should hire the more qualified candidate. They should hire the person who will contribute the most the company, regardless the color of their skin.
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