Research On The Nature Of Affirmative Action In The United States

Affirmative Action in the United States consists of a series of executive orders and civil laws which have been implemented by the U.S. federal government since1960s in the context of the Civil Rights Movement in order to protect the racial minorities’and the vulnerable groups’legal rights including the rights of equal elections, education, employment and housing. It is a kind of mandatory government action pushed by the U.S. upper decision-making elites which has been intensely debated and increasingly limited since1980s."National Construction" is both the reinterpretation of the previously existing cultural themes and the reconstruction of the ties and emotions among ethnic groups according to the Ethno-symbolism Nationalism. This paper examined above two dimensions by the use of both historical and sociological methods under the theoretical framework of Ethno-symbolism Nationalism, and through the analysis of the three indicators:"ethnic intermarriage","the enrollment rates of minorities", and "the employment situation of the racial minorities". And this paper argued that the Affirmative Action reinterpreted the themes of "democracy","freedom", and "equality" declared by the Declaration of Independence, the Federal Constitution, and its fourteenth, fifteenth, and nineteenth amendment, and that the ties and emotions among ethnic groups have been reconstructed after the implementation of the Affirmative Action. Thus, the Affirmative Action in the United States is essentially a top-down National Construction Action initiated by the U.S. upper decision-making elites in the context of the Civil Rights Movement.This paper predicted that the Affirmative Action must be gradually replaced by another national construction program after a range of policy trade-offs, and the program in the future will manage to promote the privilege of the vulnerable groups in the united national community regardless of their ethnic attribution instead of highlighting the difference between the mainstream ethnicity and the minorities. Nevertheless, the purpose of the Affirmative Action to promote the racial integration and national construction will continue to be passed along by the replaced program in the future.