...The Death of Equal Opportunity in Michigan? An Analysis of Michigan’s Proposal 2 7/20/2007 |Table of Contents | | | | | | | | | |Page | |I. |Nature and Background | | | |A. |Introduction…………………………………………………………. |3 | | |B. |Research Question………………………………………………….. |4 | | |C. |Hypotheses………………………………………………………….. |4 | | | | | | |II. |Methodology | | | |A. |Development of Survey…………………………………………….. ...
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...Affirmative Action July 2007 Abstract Affirmative action, in the United States, programs to overcome the effects of past societal discrimination by allocating jobs and resources to members of specific groups, such as minorities and women. The policy was implemented by federal agencies enforcing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and two executive orders, which provided that government contractors and educational institutions receiving federal funds develop such programs. The Equal Employment Opportunities Act (1972) set up a commission to enforce such plans. Affirmative Action was evolved from the civil rights era, 1950’s through 1960 when African Americans fought to live as normal human beings. Dr. Martin Luther King, NAACP, and other black organizations fought racism by marches, rallies, and sit-ins. Despite the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and other great activists, schools, universities, and public facilities were racially integrated. This was the time when Affirmative Action came into play, a century after the abolishment of slavery, United States finally after a Century began to address racism. President Kennedy was given credit for enacting important laws; Executive Order 10925 in 1961, which stated that Government contractors had to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed without regard to race, creed, color or national origin. President Kennedy was pressured by civil rights movements to enact Affirmative Action. But...
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...Affirmative Action The Emancipation Proclamation issued January 1, 1863, set slaves in the confederate states free. The Thirteenth Amendment permanently abolished slavery. The former confederate states, not wanting to let go of their control over blacks, established the restrictive “Black Codes.” The Civil Rights Act of 1866 proposed by Andrew Johnson was the first Civil Rights act ever written. The act was turned down by congress. The act would have given all blacks the same rights as whites. The issue of discrimination has been addressed in the court system many times. Beginning with the Dred Scott v. Sanford (1) case, in which the Supreme Court ruled, that blacks as “subordinate and inferior beings,” could not constitutionally be citizens of the United States. More recently, the Bakke case gave a look at the workings of affirmative action. A white student was denied admission to U.C. Davis because the school had already met its quotas for white students. “Affirmative action”(2) is a term coined by President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. In an executive order Johnson declared that federal contractors should take “affirmative action,” this was to guarantee that “applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Executive Order #11246 would increase the number of minorities employed by federal contractors. This order would become a major policy issue for...
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...Affirmative Action The Emancipation Proclamation issued January 1, 1863, set slaves in the confederate states free. The Thirteenth Amendment permanently abolished slavery. The former confederate states, not wanting to let go of their control over blacks, established the restrictive “Black Codes.” The Civil Rights Act of 1866 proposed by Andrew Johnson was the first Civil Rights act ever written. The act was turned down by congress. The act would have given all blacks the same rights as whites. The issue of discrimination has been addressed in the court system many times. Beginning with the Dred Scott v. Sanford (1) case, in which the Supreme Court ruled, that blacks as “subordinate and inferior beings,” could not constitutionally be citizens of the United States. More recently, the Bakke case gave a look at the workings of affirmative action. A white student was denied admission to U.C. Davis because the school had already met its quotas for white students. “Affirmative action”(2) is a term coined by President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. In an executive order Johnson declared that federal contractors should take “affirmative action,” this was to guarantee that “applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Executive Order #11246 would increase the number of minorities employed by federal contractors. This order would become a major policy issue for...
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...Affermative Action Two words that can bring about emotionally charged debates on the validity of this policy. Is it a fair practice, as proponents argue, or simply a form of reverse discrimination? It is not always been easy to decide on this issue -- for the Supreme Court or society. As it intended, affirmative action means that people from a particular group should enjoy special consideration or benefits in job placement or college admissions. Usually, when one speaks of affirmative action, it is in relation to racial discrimination (although women, as a minority group, are also included), and some people feel that the government should have unrestricted freedom in developing plans to make up for past offenses. Other people argue that enforcing this plan is little more than an obviouse reverse discrimination, and it should not be allowed. The Supreme Court has placed affirmative action plans into two basic groups--quota plans and race-plus plans. Under a quota plan, a state or local government has to use different criteria when considering someone of a minority group for a job or admission to a university. There is usually a quota for the number of people of the particular group who must be granted benefits, based on percentage of the population. Race-plus uses as its guidelines the particular racial characteristics of a certain group, and this is to be considered a plus in making the decision on who does or does not receive the benefit (McWhirter, 1). Affirmative action...
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...In the United States, affirmative action refers to equal opportunity employment measures that Federal contractors and subcontractors are legally required to adopt. These measures are intended to prevent discrimination against employees or applicants for employment, on the basis of "color, religion, sex, or national origin".[1][2] Examples of affirmative action offered by the United States Department of Labor include outreach campaigns, targeted recruitment, employee and management development, and employee support programs.[2] The impetus towards affirmative action is to redress the disadvantages[3][4][5][6][7] associated with overt historical discrimination.[8] Further impetus is a desire to ensure public institutions, such as universities, hospitals and police forces, are more representative of the populations they serve.[9] Affirmative action is a subject of controversy. Some policies adopted as affirmative action, such as racial quotas or gender quotas for collegiate admission, have been criticized as a form of reverse discrimination, and such implementation of affirmative action has been ruled unconstitutional by the majority opinion of Gratz v. Bollinger. Affirmative action as a practice was upheld by the court's decision in Grutter v. Bollinger.[10] Affirmative action in the United States began as a tool to address the persisting inequalities for African Americans in the 1960s. This specific term was first used to describe US government policy in 1961. Directed to all...
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...Affirmative Action Julia Samsa The History of Affirmative Action: Landmark Cases and Legislation Affirmative action refers to policies designed to increase the presence of “underrepresented” demographic groups-such as racial or ethnic minorities and women-in specific sectors of the workforce or in the student bodies of American universities (Affirmative Action, 2010). Affirmative action policies are founded on the premise that any observed imbalance in a given workforce or student body is due, either wholly or in part, to past and/or present discrimination-the remedy for which consists of compensatory preferences in favor of the underrepresented group(s). These measures most commonly take the form of lowered standards for the hiring, promotion, or admission of members of the preferred groups and set-asides which reserve or earmark a designated percentage of slots for members of the preferred group. Historically, the origins of affirmative action were subtle and incremental. The term “affirmative action” was first introduced to the nation by President John F. Kennedy in March 1961. The President signed Executive Order 10925 which established the President’s Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity (Magee, 2011). By this order, any business working under a federal government contract must take affirmative action in hiring and not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin (Wilcher, 2006). JFK’s order did not advocate for the preferential treatment...
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...The word affirmative action will be recognized and defined. You will learn what the initial intent of Affirmative-Action legislation was and why it was created. We will distinguish what the positive and negative results of the Affirmative Action legislation and is this legislation still appropriate today. We will learn what the landmark of Bakke v. Regents case included and how it applied and ties in with affirmative action. We will see what was the basis for the conclusion of this case? When thinking about discrimination in the workforce, the words affirmative action comes to mind. Affirmative action was a law put into action to take positive steps that would increase the representation of minorities and women in areas of employment, education, and businesses from which in historical times were excluded (Fullinwider, 2009). Affirmative action wanted to increase not noticing the basic structures based off of race, gender, or ethnicity when making decisions (Fullinwider, 2009). This action is still around till this day. Affirmative action was initiated first by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. This order showed that Federal contractors was suppose to take affirmative action to guarantee that job applicants and employees are treated fairly and would have a fair opportunity regardless of their race, color, or national origin (Fullinwider, 2009). Three years later, the Civil Rights act will take consideration and will be defined on the same terms. Affirmative action was first...
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...Section I: * Good reason: reasons that are psychologically compelling for a given audience that makes further inquiry both unnecessary and redundant. Therefore, justifying a decision to affirm or reject a proposition. (Page 2, 12th Edition) Example: * Ethos: means to convince by the character of the author and by the amount of respect and credibility the commands from the audience. Example: As a doctor, I am qualified to tell you that this course of treatment will likely generate the best results. * NDT*: National debate tournament. (Page 20, 12th Edition). * CEDA*: Cross Examination Debate Association. (Page 20, 12th Edition) * Sophists: A person who reasons with clever but fallacious arguments. Example: A person who uses graphs and scientific observation to convince someone that humans are not mammals. * Enthymeme: (1) A truncated syllogism, in which one of the premises or the conclusion is not stated. (Page 153, 12th Edition) Example: “You will come out victorious, just do your best." The missing premise is "All people who do their best are people who come out victorious." * Deduction: Argument that begins with a broad generalization and moves to a more specific application or conclusion. (Page 170, 12th Edition) Example: All living organisms eventually die. A flower is a living organism. Therefore, it will eventually die. * Induction: Argument that begins with a specific case and moves to a broader generalization...
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...effects of racial discrimination is unconstitutional. They argue that the idea of reparations is rooted in international law. • Affirmative Action is inadequate, the ‘Maafa’ (meaning disaster, i.e., slavery) is a crime against humanity, and therefore compensation is required. • In the past 50 years apologies and financial compensation has been given to a wide range of groups, including survivors of the Jewish holocaust (as well as descendants of the victims), Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned during the Second World War and native Americans who had their land illegally seized in the USA. • African Americans have been demanding compensation for slavery since the end of the American Civil War. Immediately after the abolition of slavery, the demand was for 40 acres and a mule to ensure they would not be dependent on their former slave-owners. Then, between 1890 and 1917, there was a movement to lobby the government for pensions to compensate for their unpaid labour under slavery. Since 1989, Congressman John Conyers Jnr (Michigan) has introduced a bill every year to study the case for reparations. Each of these initiatives has been largely ignored by the political establishment. • Reparations would ensure full recognition of the scale of the Maafa and, at the same time, undermine those who claim that there is no further need for Affirmative Action. They would also compensate for slavery, provide psychological relief for black anger and white guilt resulting from centuries...
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...as discrimination. If a civil rights initiative can be portrayed as encouraging employers to adopt quotas, its political demise is nearly certain in the United States.[3] Narrow forms of affirmative action have survived, legally and politically, only to the extent that they can be distinguished from quotas. Quotas are so widely regarded as legally, politically, and morally repugnant that they are taboo: The “q-word”[4] is rarely the subject of any serious debate, even by those who favor stronger civil rights protections for women and minorities. The related belief in the illegitimacy of ever pursuing numerically informed demographic balance – especially along lines of race or gender -- is gaining strength in the Supreme Court’s major antidiscrimination cases in the last several years.[5] It is widely accepted – even by civil rights advocates – that pursuing racial or gender balance as a goal, “for its own sake,” would be illegitimate.[6] This principle threatens the constitutionality of race-based affirmative action, which may meet its demise in Fisher v. Texas next Term. Meanwhile, in Europe, quotas have made a definitive comeback, as a way of pursuing gender equality. Legislative and constitutional transformations over the last few years have led to the adoption of various policies requiring gender parity quotas in positions of political and economic power. Gender balance is regarded not only as a justifiable and legitimate goal, but as a permanent and enduring...
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...Civil Rights Act of 1964 Michael Cain ELA2603 - Administrative and Personnel Law Professor Zara Sette August 17, 2012 Abstract The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the nation's benchmark civil rights legislation, and it continues to resonate in America. The basic tenants of this legislation prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin and other protected classes as amended. Passage of the Act ended the application of "Jim Crow" laws, which had been upheld by the Supreme Court in the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson, in which the Court held that racial segregation purported to be "separate but equal" was constitutional. The Civil Rights Act was eventually expanded by Congress to strengthen enforcement of these fundamental civil rights (United States Senate - Committee of the Judiciary). In the 1960s, Americans who knew only the potential of "equal protection of the laws" expected the nations political leaders and the courts to fulfill the promise and guarantee of the 14th Amendment. In response, all three branches of the federal government, as well as the public at large, debated a fundamental constitutional question: Does the Constitution's prohibition of denying equal protection always ban the use of racial, ethnic, or gender criteria in an attempt to bring social justice and social benefits (National Archives, 2012)? The simple answer is no. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). The...
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...situation is improved with regard to political empowerment especially with the allocation of 33% seats in local government in South Asia but in most of the cases this change is not satisfactory. The real empowerment would be achieved only if it would be accompanied by the social and economic empowerment. For that purpose, society has to be changed at large. Such change cannot be materialized only through any coercive legislation or strong state action in the blink of an eye. But the fact remains there that in societies where all the changes start from top to bottom these measures along with a strong political will can stimulate a change to improve the situation gradually. This paper discusses the measures taken by different governments in South Asia to achieve the goal of political empowerment and participation of womenfolk in the decision making process at all levels. By analyzing the implications and the practical aspects of these measures and the problems of women at domestic and societal level this paper also suggests the proposals to make the environment conducive for implementing 152 Pakistan Vision Vol 10 No 1 revolutionary steps by the government with the help of civil...
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...advantages, disadvantages, or liabilities linked to skin color, ethnicity, disability, or socioeconomic status. An open system of public education serves as a key compensatory strategy to minimize individual differences and to equalize potential achievements and life outcomes for all. To achieve this end, attendance in public schools became compulsory in most states by the start of the 20th century. Specifically, the words equality and equity have different meanings. Equity speaks to public actions and policies in the cause of fairness and social justice. It requires a sufficient distribution of social resources to rectify initially unequal conditions for different groups of people. Equal access to educational opportunity has been a central issue of legal, educational, and social debates since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1954. Affirmative action policies like busing, a strategy for balancing racial distributions in public schools, are examples of public actions aimed at improvement of educational equity through desegregation. Fiscal equity and educational adequacy lawsuits represent other examples of...
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...A Business Proposal to Make Ethical and Diversity Considerations to Improve the Strategic HRM Planning Process. Prepared for Jane Doe HR Director ABC Restaurant & Pub Prepared by XXXXX Personnel Director ABC Restaurant & Pub December 24, 2012 ABC’s Restaurant & Pub Ethical and Diversity Considerations to Improve the Strategic HRM Planning Process. I have gathered information over the last five weeks about department policies and best practices pertaining to ethical and diversity considerations. Based on these findings, the following proposal is presented to improve the strategic planning process. Diversity and ethics are buzzwords and are used frequently around the workplace. There are areas within both where making small changes could result in large benefits for the company’s HR strategic planning process. These considerations are important for the strategic plan because they encourage a positive company culture and decrease legal risks that could otherwise result in the demise of the company. Diversity As a restaurant and bar located in the middle of a military-base town, our personnel records indicate management has been hiring primarily a specific demographic type (women ages 18-30). Management has hired this demographic type over other demographic types more qualified. Even in an effort to appeal to specific customers, this bias can come off as discriminative and reflect negatively on the company. Two areas in need of consideration...
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