Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action was first signed into law by President John F. Kennedy on March 6, 1961. This act outlawed the discrimination of individuals because of their race, creed, color, or national origin in the work place, educational venues, and contract bids in a business setting. The law was partially made in response to schools and workplaces still dragging their feet on abolishing segregation and to remedy past discriminations. However, it is becoming less and less needed or welcomed in the educational and workforce settings. There have been many Supreme Court Cases debating if in fact Affirmative Action is still helping more people than it is hurting. The case that had recently gone through the Supreme Court regarding Affirmative Action is Fisher v. Texas. This case was filed in 2008 and was ruled on in 7-1 favor in June of 2013. A white female brought the University of Texas to the court because she felt she was unfairly pushed out of admissions for a less qualified minority student. In the 2003 the Supreme Court heard the cases Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger, which was a similar case with students who felt they were passed over in University of Michigan’s admission process. Affirmative Action has been redefined over the years in regards to how much race can be factored in to a school’s admissions procedure. Supporters of Affirmative Action say it is still a viable way to insure that diversity stays in the classroom and in the work place. In contrast those who are against Affirmative Action believe that this law is really just reverse racism. To quote Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, while he was presiding over another Affirmative Action case California v Bakke, “Preferring members of any group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the constitution forbids” (Stohr, 2004, p.66). The constitution

Drinking Alcohol Causes Sexual Assault

Drinking Alcohol Causes Sexual Assault

There is a definite correlation between alcohol and sexual assault. A sexual assault can be defined as a sexual act occurring without verbal consent, or when force is used in a sexual encounter against the other person’s will. Of all the men who admit to committing sexual assault, 55% report being under the influence of alcohol at the time, with 26% of the men being drunk (Stanford University, 1999). Of all the women who report being sexually assaulted, 53% of them report being under the influence of alcohol, with 21% of these women being drunk (Stanford University, 1999). These facts suggest that alcohol is a major factor in sexual assaults. Crimes such as these could be greatly reduced if alcohol was not in the picture.

Unfortunately, there are many sexual assaults, or rapes, per year. According to the Affirmative Action Office at Iowa State University, there have been at least two reported rapes per weekend since classes have begun this year. Throughout the United States in 1996, there were 98,000 completed rapes, and 219,000 attempted rapes (Stanford University, 1999). Most of these assaults were upon women. In fact, women were ten times more likely than men to become victims of rape or sexual assault in 1996, a reality that still holds true (Stanford University, 1999). The number of sexual assaults upon men is so minor that statistics are rarely given.

Alcohol plays a major factor in many sexual assault and rape cases. There are many reasons for why alcohol is such a clear component of sexual assault.

The first reason that many assaults involve alcohol is that it has severe effects on the human body. The effects of alcohol on a man and woman are different. When a man co…

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…xual assault, act responsibly around alcohol, or steer clear of it completely

Works Cited

Abbey, Antonia. “Acquaintance Rape and Alcohol Consumption on College Campuses.” Journal of American College Health. Vol. 39, January 1991. http://www2.bitstream.net/~alpropes/resc/al

Alcohol and Acquaintance Rape: Strategies to Protect Yourself and Each Other. The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Center. 1995. http://www.edc.org/hec.

Alcohol Impairment Chart. The National Clearing house for Alcohol and Drug Information. Oct. 1998. http://www.health.org/pubs/qdocs/alcohol-bad-chrt.htm

Rohypnol Facts- The “Date Rape Drug.” Midland Police Service. 4 March 1999. http://www.police.midland.on.ca/rohypnol.html

The Relationship Between Alcohol and Sexual Assault. Stanford University. 1999 http://www.stanford.edu/group/bbeam/alcohol