Affirmative Action and the 2017 Oscar Awards
The Oscars recently took place amidst one of the problematic industries of the United States – the film industry. The movie making industry has been accused of being racially exclusive in the past years, but this year’s Oscars has made history with the most “black” winners ever. Diversity in the awards race is booming currently, and will hopefully keep growing. This victory, however, is part of a bigger topic – affirmative action. Affirmative action is the measure or policy of favoring those who suffer from discrimination in the areas of employment and education.
However, this hasn’t always been the case. It’s been hard work upkeeping the guarantee of pure equality, especially with the fabricated “separate but equal” doctrine upturned in Brown vs. Board of Education in Topeka, and the segregation in the Civil Rights movement, only sixty years ago.
The racial disparity is still a very current hot topic. In 2003 in Grutter v. Bollinger, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly upheld the decision to allow colleges and universities to give an advantage to minorities “by ruling in favor of the University of Michigan’s law school admissions policy.” Sandra Day O’Connor supported the decision and stated that nothing prohibits the promotion of diversity and equality in today’s America. Yet, in the 1978 case, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that allowing colleges to take affirmative action violates the The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Furthermore, colleges have begun to adopt measures of affirmative action – indicated by Fischer vs. Texas case in 2008, where high schoolers in Austin, Texas were not admitted into their desired universities. They argued that measures of affirmative action placed them at a disadvantage for their college education. The Supreme Court then ruled that a system of alternatives must be used to admit students, not based on diversity.
In a nation where the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendment protecting the equal liberty of all rights was only ratified after the death of 600,000 Americans in a brutal Civil War, Americans everyone are still seeking how these liberties can be played out when minorities have been at such a disadvantage for decades. How will we ensure liberty to all, and prove that the Amendment is present in more than words? How will we begin to grant equality on a nation built on the inferiority of others? It is 2017, and we are still struggling to resolve the nation’s paradox at its core. The need is greater than ever before for a new generation to advocate for equal rights to all. All St. Philip Falcons are called to make a difference in the world by caring and loving the individual beside them.
To read more, visit:
Civil Rights manager named new Affirmative Action officer:
New Representatives for Affirmative Action
Colleges taking affirmative action:
Historically Groundbreaking Oscars:
http://ew.com/awards/2017/02/26/oscars-2017-black-acting-winners/
Vivian is a 8th grader this year attending Mr. Weyermuller's 8A class. She has two cats, both of which are featured on Falcon's Flyer (Honey and Onion...
