...Affirmative Action Initiatives were created in order to correct the wrongs of discrimination and to make equal opportunity a reality. Affirmative Action Initiatives were created by law to ensure equal rights for minorities and women as it pertains to college admissions and promotions within the workforce. The affirmative action initiatives have been scrutinized since its inception. The creation of the initiatives was the first step in a long battle to end discrimination. The original intent was to be aggressive with non-discrimination and to racially integrate the workforces. Affirmative action, originally (Consortium Journal Hospitality & Tourism, 2010) implemented as a means of righting past wrongs and leveling the playing field for minorities and women, has in some circles become a bad word synonymous with quotas, privilege, and reverse discrimination. Although the Initiatives were coined and created in 1961, it wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act in 1964, that racial discrimination was actually prohibited in the workforce. Those for the affirmative action initiatives view them as a positive. Opponents of the Initiatives believe the harm of racial discrimination has dissipated therefore affirmative action is not necessary. Those against believe that race based policies make minority achievement a white allowance and the failure of minorities a group stigma. Those against also believe the Initiatives were created as a means of compensating for all racially based...
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...Affirmative action, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, means positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and business from which they have been historically excluded. In this paper I will discuss the history of affirmative action and its effects on education in our society, and whether a program such as affirmative action is still necessary today. I will argue why affirmative action is necessary for minorities to gain equal opportunities educationally and how affirmative action helps to mend the wounds that past discrimination has inflicted upon minorities. Affirmative action requires that supervisors in charge of economic and educational opportunities take into consideration a candidate’s sex, disabilities, and ethnic background when accepting positions, especially if the candidate’s ethnic affiliation has had a history of racial discrimination. These minority groups are entitled to special considerations, typically viewed as payments made by the government to settle past discrimination. The effects of affirmative action have been well seen in educational systems where educators have long been pressured into giving preference to minorities even if they have lesser qualifications, to help write off past discrimination. Affirmative action was established on the basis that because of the past discrimination of races, our nation was unable to flourish into what it should have become, a...
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...According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, affirmative action is defined as “an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women” (Miriam). Many people feel that affirmative action is necessary to either counteract injustices or ensure the advancement of certain minorities. There are four justifications generally pointed out by affirmative action exponents. These are racism, poverty, diversity, and the problem of underrepresentation. Supporters point out that many blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans live in substandard housing, go to substandard schools, and live in crime ridden neighborhoods. They also claim that they are targets of daily racism, hindering their chances for advancement. Proponents point to small numbers of these minorities in certain desirable jobs (i.e. CEOs of corporations and high elected office) as evidence of underrepresentation of minorities and a need for diversity both in the workplace and in higher education. There are a number of different levels of affirmative action, including quotas, preferences, and outreach, in lessening order of severity. Quotas, also called “set asides”, deal with having a definite amount of jobs or college spots reserved for a particular group. For example, if a university admits 1000 students every year and sets aside 150 seats that are open to blacks only, this is considered a quota. A perfect illustration of a quota would be the 1977 Supreme Court case...
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...My Case Against Affirmative Action In 1965 President Johnson, using executive action, introduced affirmative action as a way to redress past discrimination and racial bias. Although his action applied to government contractors, with the passage of Title VII colleges began implementing their own affirmative action programs and started admitting more minority students. In my opinion, affirmative action is not only discriminatory in its own right, but should be abolished by the courts that have seen so far to uphold it. Affirmative action, though started with good intentions, has now dissolved into a policy that gives minorities’ unfair advantage and encourages “reverse racism” instead of discouraging it. It admits lesser qualified minority students into post-secondary institutions while passing over more qualified students. As David Sacks and Peter Thiel say in their paper The Case Against Affirmative Action, “If, after 25 years, affirmative action has not succeeded in ending discrimination, perhaps it is time to try something else.” Affirmative action, in addition to hurting the minorities it supposedly is meant to help by placing unprepared students into colleges they are not ready for, all serves to promote racism. Anytime someone is placed above someone else based on race, that’s racism, be it a white student accepted ahead of a black student or vice versa. Today, especially in light of what we see in Missouri, Staten Island, and other cities, racism is seen as white...
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...Affirmative Action a Balancing Act ENG. 215 February 5, 2013 Affirmative Action a Balancing Act Many people believe that affirmative action laws are reverse discrimination and that these laws should be changed. Unfortunately in this country race is a determining factor in many aspects of daily living. Affirmative action laws simply balance the scales when it comes to determining whether race works for or against minorities. Affirmative action laws should not be changed, because it is an excellent program as demonstrated by the fact that two Supreme Court justices are products of affirmative action. Originally designed to overcome the disparities created by slavery and past discrimination affirmative action is still relevant in today’s society Affirmative action laws have been the subject of legal actions and disputes. In 2003 Michigan law school had to defend its affirmative action practices before the Supreme Court in the case of Grutter versus Bollinger (Garces, 2012). The court decided that colleges and universities have an obligation to consider race in a society where race matters. Another case is currently before the Supreme Court titled Fisher versus the University of Texas (Garces, 2012). A decision in this case is imminent and can have sweeping effects on the future of affirmative action laws. Many Americans do not understand affirmative action laws. Most people see it as a personal injury of giving priority to someone that...
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... Outline I. The history of diversity programs A. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 1. History of how the EEOC was created. 2. How EEOC affects diversity and anti-discrimination today. B. Affirmative Action 1. History of affirmative action. 2. How affirmative action affects diversity today. II. Benefits of a diverse workforce A. How a diverse workplace is a more productive workplace. B. How creating a diverse workplace can improve the bottom line. III. Implementing diversity training A. The positive aspects of implementing diversity and sensitivity training. B. The negative aspects of not implementing diversity training. IV. Diversity during the recession A. How the recession has impacted diversity programs. B. How the recession has impacted minorities. In the years following the Civil Rights movement human resources personnel has had to alter from the old ways of recruitment and selection. This paper will show how government legislation and the evolving mindset in America have opened the doors to racial and ethnic diversity in the workplace and what impact it has had on the success of employees and companies and the strategies companies can use to promote and increase diversity. Before the Civil Rights movement, the majority of employed people in the United States were Caucasian and minority...
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...The issue of race in America is now widely regarded as a socioeconomic issue whereas a few decades ago, racism was a more violent word. This is to say that race these days usually boils down to a debate as to how it determines a person’s opportunities in life. Affirmative action was created to help shift the equilibrium struck in the U.S. as far as statistics of African Americans working in high-paying professional environments are concerned. A consequence of this action was seen in the case Bakke v. UC Regents, a case in which medical schools were setting aside racial quotas and accepting this quota of African-American students even though it was proven that their test scores were generally lower (Abernathy 1233). These quotas are not just for either race and racial equality is ultimately set when race doesn’t play a factor in whether someone gets hired or accepted into a position. There has been a host of court cases in America dealing with this “Affirmative action” issue in colleges and graduate schools. A look at this progression will help people to understand where Affirmative action is today and how colleges accept students based on race. Bakke v. UC Regents is an example case of a bigger issue in America about the fairness of affirmative action. This case is also what the first case to appear that really dealt with a racial bias as it was concerned to acceptance into a professional school. While affirmative action is not the reason in which this school set racial...
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... I determined affirmative action is still an instrumental tool in balancing the work force in the United States. There are still jobs that are out of reach for certain minority groups. As long as this imbalance exists so does the need for affirmative action. Do We Need Affirmative Action? Is affirmative action still needed in today’s society? Some people do not think so; others do. I believe affirmative action is still necessary as long as a minority group of people (Blacks, Hispanics, Women, etc.) attempting to acquire jobs in certain markets believes they are not getting those jobs because they are being discriminated against by the majority group that holds them. I will attempt to present some sources to reinforce my conclusion. I will discuss the original purpose of affirmative action and present some cases being discussed or ruled on in present day courts. I hope to show that affirmative action expands opportunity by promoting inclusion of underrepresented minorities in all areas of the job market and it is not intended to take jobs away from those in the majority. Its Purpose I’ve been in the military since 1987. The military has a zero tolerance rule for any type of discrimination and it’s strictly enforced from the top officer down to the lowest ranking Airman. That doesn’t mean that all groups (blacks, whites, Hispanics, etc.) hang out and get along with each other after duty hours because we didn’t back then and we still don’t today. It does mean...
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...Affirmative Action or Affirmative Discrimination Affirmative action refers to an attempt at equality in the society. It claims that each person receive equal opportunities in the classroom as well as the work force. Not only would this would be subjected to minorities but to women as well. Every sector in America should be equal and unprejudiced - or so proponents say. However, adopting affirmative action would force many employers to replace hard-working employees with those less qualified simply as a consequence of their gender or ethnic background (Sterba, 2003). We can analyze this concept from the perspective of two opponents as “Arguments for ‘Affirmative Action is Reverse Discrimination’” and “Arguments against ‘Affirmative Action is Reverse Discrimination’”. First of all, with reference to “Arguments for ‘Affirmative Action is Reverse Discrimination’”, the fact of affirmative action is that it attempts to end discrimination with discrimination, that is, reverse discrimination. The purpose of affirmative action is to correct the past discrimination based on race, sex, religion, etc. But the way that affirmative action taken to achieve this is to sacrifice the rights of others, which leads to reverse discrimination: as we are all members of some minority or majority groups, helping one group would certainly disadvantage others. For example, in USA, under affirmative action, a company might prefer to hire the minority like women or colored people instead of white...
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...The media shows the small portion of racist American citizens, causing an uproar by the public, furthering the issue even more. Page grew up in the fifties, when racism was unyielding and far too many innocent people faced discrimination and persecution. After that, racism was heavily lessened by much needed programs, such as Affirmative Action and the Supreme Court ruling on the case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Since then, America has come leaps and bounds past the idea that one group of people can be less than another based off of skin pigmentation. However, while speaking about his son, Page fears that he will go from “someone who is perceived as cute and innocent into someone who is perceived as a menace, the most feared creature on America’s urban streets today, a young black male” (Page 336). The fact that some still feel this way is embarrassingly disheartening and I couldn’t agree less. Many older African Americans who have dealt with severe segregation firsthand, Page for instance, have a justified hatred and fear towards whites. These feelings often get passed down from generation to generation, keeping the tension, discrimination, and racism alive. Since racism is typically thought of as white people being racist to blacks, some may argue that black people cannot be...
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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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...Journals Student’s Name Institution Journal 1: Part 1 Work in my opinion refers to the legitimate means by which man makes a living. Every individual in life has demands that need fulfillment. Individuals have responsibilities that they have to handle. Work enables individuals to earn a living that in turn enables them to meet these responsibilities. It implies that for any normal human being to live comfortably, one must work. Besides earning a living, work enables to utilize our time well. The world today could be full of vices if everybody had nothing to do. They deem that the fiend employs of redundant minds explains this situation clearly. Individuals ought to embrace the work and take it positively rather than viewing it as a punishment. Work should be as part of us, and a means through which human beings maintain their dignity and live respectable lives (Connors and Paul, 2009). The culture of rewarding hard workers cultivated in me the culture of hard work and a positive view towards life. From my tender age, I learned that the work was the way of life and the only way through which individuals could better their lives. On academic grounds, I must state that the teachings by our teachers towards work had a lot of impact on me. They taught work as a virtue and changed my perception towards work. Family provided me with my first interaction with the work. My parents could divide the work and go ahead to reward those who did good work. It instilled in me the...
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...Affirmative action is public policy, which has been discussed for the last 50 years, and in those 50 years no common consensus has been arrived at in the country. On one side of the issue we have those who believe affirmative actions is required to not only right the wrongs of the past generations but to also allow minorities to become more productive members of society that these people believe they would be otherwise. On the other side of the spectrum are those who believe there should be no affirmative action and instead everyone should be treated the same regardless of their race, color, sex or any other identifying features used in affirmative action. In full disclosure I tend to be of this second mind set myself, but I will do my best to present both sides of the issue without bias. The story of affirmative action while much older than 50 years in concept it was not until Executive order 10925 issued by John F. Kennedy on 6 March 1961 the debate truly started over the issue of affirmative action. Throughout the rest of the 60’s the three different Presidents worked to take the idea of JFK to the logical conclusion of truly instituting affirmative action. There were speeches given and executive orders signed all designed to further the idea of affirmative action. The largest single act taken at the time to further this cause was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act forbids the act of discrimination of any type based on race, color, religion or a person’s national...
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...into the top positions at all levels of employment in business and government because of their sex or race. It’s also important to understand that the “glass ceiling” today has a different meaning than when it was first introduced. The term “Glass Ceiling” originally only referred to women, based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed sexual discrimination in the workplace. It was an article by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt in the March 24, 1986 edition of the Wall Street Journal that brought new meaning to the term. This was the first time that “Glass Ceiling” was used to determine the recognition of the gender bias in Corporate America. By 1991, the US had created a Federal Glass Ceiling Commission with the Secretary of Labor as its chair. The US Department of Labor understood the concept to mean “those artificial barriers based on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevent qualified individuals from advancing upward in their organizations into management level positions”; these barriers reflect “discrimination... a deep line of demarcation between those who prosper and those who are left behind.” There is a false sense of social progress and ethnic harmony that suggests that there is no problem, that discrimination is a thing of the past, even suggests that affirmative action is no longer needed, but there is factual evidence that suggests that...
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...Cultural Considerations In Today’s Society Nikia Hughes AJS/502 The world of law enforcement has come a long way sense law enforcement began a very long time ago. The face of law enforcement has changed over the centuries and has become more culturally diverse. The world is moving at a rapid pace and the justice system must change with the times. As more technologies come into play and more sophisticated jail systems come about it is necessary to understand and have a wide variety of people to take on these changes. According to cnn.com, “990,553 people were granted lawful permanent residence in the United States in 2013. Approximately 40% of these "green card" recipients, or LPRs, were born in Asia, while about 32% were born in North America. In 2012 The Department of Homeland Security estimates that there are 11.4 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, down from 11.5 million in 2011.With the top being Mexico.” (cnn.com/immigrants) These statistics alone speak for themselves in terms of being concerned for the justice system. Law enforcement is trying to keep up with a rapid change that no one was prepared for. The biggest problem for the justice system is more so the illegal immigrants that are in the country unregistered, therefore not accounted for. This causes hikes in crime rates, heavier prison populations, and a big concern for home land security. The bigger question...
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