Affirmative Action

A lesson worth discussing.

Activity #1: The Four Questions

Asked four questions:

Do you feel the past effects the present?
What is the difference between equality and fairness?
Should people feel offended when the receive a compliment
based on their race?
Do you agree with this statement: I dont see race/color I only
see people as equal human beings?

A pattern emerged: African Americans and

Hispanics vs. Whites and Asians.
Our experiences shape our understanding
and create our biases.
We all felt a little racist after this was done.

Activity #2:Creating meaning

A game of word-association with the term

Affirmative Action.

Words mentioned: Racism, Justice,

African American, Righteousness,
BLACK POWER!

The pattern stayed on creating the meaning

of Affirmative Action: African Americans and
Hispanics vs. Asians and Whites

Through the word association a student

created definition was born:

Affirmative Action: A policy the

government forces people to give jobs to
African Americans because of
Segregation in order to provide justice for
them.

With the help of Mr. Papa we refined our

definition:

Affirmative Action: A government policy

that directly or indirectly awards jobs,
government contracts, promotions,
admission to schools and training
programs, and other benefits to
minorities and women in order to make
up for past discrimination caused by
society as a whole.

Activity #3: Taking a Stance

Do we believe such a policy

is fair?

The class became divided

and soon everybody wanted
the chance to prove the other
side wrong.

The class was pretty much

split down the middle.

Got Super Heated.

Remember when Tommy

said THIS IS SOME BULL!

If we believe that the past

affects the future, then does
past discrimination affect
present minority dilemmas?

Pro-Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action as a practice

was implemented in order to
obtain the highest standard of
fairness by allowing minorities
which faced numerous forms of
discrimination to be provided the
opportunities barred from them in
their past to create a more equal
society.

Anti-Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action was unfair

because it runs contrary to the
American Dream of providing
benefits based on the
inconsequential criteria of race
instead of merit and hard work,
and because it does this it is in its
nature a racist act and should not
be allowed.

The Stances

Activity #4 & 5: Regents of University of

California V. Bakke

Activity #4: Guided reading

activity

Learned about Allan Bakke and

how he sued his way into med
school.
Discussed the ramifications of his
court case in small groups
Filled out a helpful but boring
worksheet.

Activity #5: Discussion of

Regents of University of
California V. Bakke.

The same format as the discussion

before.
Saw some traitors who changed their
position.
Super surprised about the stances the
two groups made:
We disagree with the ruling of the
Regents of University of California V.
Bakke because it further affirms that
race should be a criterion in college
admission but agree with the ruling
that forced schools to dismantle the
quota system in their admission
process.
We agree with the overriding ruling
that race should be a factor in college
admission because such history
attached to race contributes to the
potential of a student and believe that
the dismantling of a quota system
was in fact an action which better
served the idea of a just society.
Through disagreement we came to an
agreement!

Activity #6: Reflection

We looked back at the questions in Activity #1 and

realized our minds had changed on curtain answers.
Before we started this lesson 75% of the students
believed that Affirmative Action was a bad thing, a
racist act.
Now 65% of us believe that Affirmative Action is a
policy that makes sense and is the best way to create
a more equal society.
Equality and Fairness are not the same thing.
Positive stereotypes are still bad because they restrict
who we are allowed to be.
Seeing people as completely equal is inconsistent to
the history and reality of our society.

The Significance!!!

The history of minorities in the U.S is a history that

has made a distinction between what opportunities are
allowed for one group of people and what opportunities
are allowed for another. Presently our society is better
at providing opportunities to minorities than ever
before, butI realized that we as a society are far from
universal equality, that race still matters, and how we
get better at creating a more equal and fair society is a
question we still need answered.