Affirmative Action And The Higher Education Of American Ethnic Minorities

Affirmative Action Program has been implemented by American government for the purpose of relieving and eliminating racial and sexual discrimination in employment, education and other fields since the mid-60s of the 20th century. The 11246 Executive Order, announced by President Lyndon Johnson, generally was regarded as the start of the Program.The study perspective of this thesis is the "controversy" caused by the Program, which is used as the entry point to analyze the connection between this Program and American higher education, attempting to illustrate the policy from a relatively new perspective.The thesis includes four chapters with additional preface and conclusion.In the preface, the historical and practical meaning of this study is firstly introduced. Then present research situation included foreign and domestic is reviewed in order to make clear about the feasibility and necessity. Finally the basic clue and outline of the paper is introduced in this part.Chapter one probes into the historical background of the Program, from which we can see it was born in "controversy". Firstly the impact of Civil Right Movement on American ethnic minorities'self-awareness is analyzed, and the Federal Government's counter-measured is explained, the policy in the terms of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson are the focus. Then the influence of Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 on American's nationality policy and educational policy is exploded. At the end of the chapter the Cold War, which was acted as the international background is studied.From Chapter two to Chapter four the "controversies" in the field of higher education developed in the course of the Affirmative Action are probed. Chapter two explained the position the U.S. Supreme Court, the cases of "Marco Defunis V. the University of Washington of Law School", "Regents of the University of California V. Bakke", "Grutter V. Bollinger", and "Graze V. Bollinger" are interpreted in detail. Then on this basis, the Program is analyzed jurisprudentially and philosophically. Chapter three devoted to the inquiry of the administrative department's position, and the focus are put on three most respective presidents----Ronald Reagan, who cut down the expenditure on education, which led to a big blow to the Program; Bill Clinton, who was faced in a situation of "dilemma", choose the attitude of "mend it, but not end it"; George W. Bush, whose viewpoint is very ambiguous, on the one hand, he praised University of Michigan's effort to promote the diversity of its campus, on the other hand, he advocated his " Affirmative Access" policy. Chapter four analyzes the different voices from different ethnics and different class. Can ethnics or class be regarded as the Criteria for the classification? Are Asian-American students the victim of the Program? Can't the African-American students get the admission without the "preference"? Is the white suffering from "reverse discrimination"?The concluding chapter forecasts the future of Affirmative Action in campus. After the case of "Hopwood V. Texas State University School of Law" and "Proposition 209", can Affirmative Action continue to exist with the challenge of "reverse discrimination"? What roles will the first African-American president Barrack Obama and the first Hispanic Justice Sonia Sotomayor play in the near future with regard to the Program? Will the Program be "a diminishing tool" as Obama said? Will Sonia Sotomayor take a positive attitude towards the Program because of her ethnic and life experience? Based on the "controversy" the Program caused, it is very hard for us to come to a conclusion at present, and all of these remain to be seen.