Affirmative Action and the Media

The media has an impact on our daily lives. The media effects people perspective not only

through television, but also through radio and newspaper. Affirmative action is one topic that

the media has focused on in the past 25 years. In 1977 there was a case, University of

California Regents v. Bakke, which dealt with affirmative action. Allan Bakke applied to medical

school twice and was denied admission because of minority applicants. Minority applicants in

a special program were rated only against one another. A record of 388 and 16 places in the

class 100 were reserved for blacks. He filed for lawsuit in the Supreme Court in California. In

1978 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 vote.

Another issues that the media help shaped the publics view was proposition 209. Proposition

209 commands “ Shall nor discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or

group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment,

public education or public contracting.” (Baltimore Sun, November 26, 1996, p.13A, Jeff Jacoby)

On January 19,1994, Ms. Janice Camarena showed up for the 11 a.m. session of English 101

at San Bernardino Community College. She and another woman were the only white students in the

class; as soon as the instructor notice them, that session of English 101, it turned out, was reserved for

blacks only. (Baltimore Sun, November 26, 1996, p. 13A, Jeff Jacoby) This colorblind law even scruple

to insult this young widow who allowed the Yes on proposition 209 campaign to tell this story on a radio ad,

Janice Camarena.

What happened to Janice Camarena is a poisonous as what happened to Homer Plessy. She used

the radio ad to voice her public opinion on proposition 209 and affirmative action, which effect the listeners

of California. The media is used to shape our minds and culture that may result negative, as it did with

Janice Camarena.