Affirmative Action is a must!

I am going to answer my own question, but first I need to define Affirmative Action:
refers to policies that take race, ethnicity, and gender into consideration in an attempt to promote equal opportunity

As Affirmative Action promotes positive steps to increase the number of members of racial minority groups and women, it remains a controversial topic. Although containing numerous supporters the idea of abolishing this policy continues to linger. Many allow themselves to believe the goal of this strategy is to eliminate racism. They are incorrect. Affirmative Action ensures fairer representation, diminishes discrimination, and strives for equal opportunity. This policy simply wants to level the “playing field”. Roosevelt Thomas describes affirmative action as “unnatural” and a “loose and fast” way to play the standards. I strongly disagree. Affirmative action is absolutely needed in the society of the United States.
Roosevelt states “minorities no longer need a boarding pass, they need an upgrade”, as I do believe in what he is trying to accomplish, affirmative action is necessary in allowing marginal groups to even begin to have a promotion. He also describes what he believes is the problem: “The problem is not getting them in at the entry level, the problem is making better use of their potential at every level”. I one hundred percent accept what he is communicating, but how can people be recognized for their potential if they are never given the opportunity? As stated in the article “The Roots of the Racial Wealth Divide” forty percent of job applicants with “white sounding” names received a call back for an interview in contrast to “black sounding names”. How can these “black sounding” named people hope for an upgrade without something as simple as a call back?
One of the myths of this policy is declared to be “fighting fire with fire”. People believe affirmative action is merely attempting to eliminate discrimination with discrimination. Supporters of affirmative action disable this thought by describing the use of the policy in terms of vitamins. An unhealthy person needs to be treated with vitamin supplements; whereas if a healthy person intakes more then necessary they can become ill. Discrimination revolves around prejudice and segregation. Affirmative action attempts to conquer these prejudices through inclusion. This myth stands untrue.
Another myth I would like to completely undermine is the idea of affirmative action only being essential thirty years ago. How can anyone truly believe this? Women continue to earn seventy-six cents for every male dollar. “For every dollar owned by the average white family in the United States, the average family of color has less than a dime. Black people remain at a rate of twice the unemployment of white people. It is a proven fact, without affirmative action the percentage of black students (at many selective schools) would drop to only two percent of the student body. The list goes on and on. How do people blind themselves from the truths of the “land of opportunity”? In the “The Roots of the Racial Wealth Divide” article a white respondent states “I think it’s pretty even, but you’d never get blacks to admit it”. What is even? Where in society is there true equality?
Affirmative action does not seek to cure the everlasting characteristic many hold, racism. It is to allow those who were never given and may never be given an equal opportunity to succeed. Professor Cromwell stated that people who hold power, wealth, and assets want people of underprivileged to have opportunities, but once it challenges their own personal situation to decrease in anyway they are not all for equality. Affirmative action is not only a necessity in our society, but if ridded of would be immoral.


(The aarticle by Thomas Roosevelt I am referring to can be rea d at http://www.uvm.edu/envnr/nr6/thomas.pdf)
( The Ten Myths of Affirmative Action can be found here --> http://www.understandingprejudice.org/readroom/articles/affirm.htm)