Affirmative Action

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Grand Canyon University *

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Feb 20, 2024

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Terry Liddell College Of Humanities Social Sciences, Grand Canyon University Jus-202: Professional Responsibility in Justice Prof. Clearfield November 26, 2023 1

The United States for over 100 years has been known as the melting pot of the world but places like schools and the workplace sadly were not. The 60’s in America was a time of big changes and major events. The Civil Rights Movement was at its peak in the 60’s. This paved the way for minorities to finally get the equal rights they deserved. In 1961 Executive Order 10925 was signed into order by President John F. Kennedy. This executive order states that affirmative action must be used to make sure that all employees are treated fairly without race, gender, or religion being an issue. The one who created affirmative action was President Lydon B. Johnson with the intention of making employers stop discrimination based on race. Affirmative Action was made with the intent to eliminate systematic discrimination and it has been able to do that. People of all ethnicities are now in occupations that their ancestors could not hold such as being a lawyer, doctor, or law enforcement. These are just some of the positions many did not think they could hold, especially before the 60s. America has made a lot of progress since the 60s but there is a lot of room for improvement. There are still many cases of discrimination based on race, gender, and many other factors. There is still a big problem with the differences between the pay men get versus women. In the article Quick Facts About the Gender Wage Gap “ women of all races earned, on average, just 82 cents for every $1 earned by men of all races” (Director et al., 2020, para 3). Closing this pay gap would be a huge success for America and would show affirmative action is working. Over the course of America's growth as a country, one thing that took a long time to change was the opportunities that both African Americans and women had. Since the 60’s 2

affirmative action worked to open up many opportunities. The way society looks today is a result of affirmative action working but to an extent. Affirmative action was made in a time of extreme racial tension and discrimination this was a way to remedy the discrimination and setbacks from the past such as slavery. On the website of the National Center of Education Statistics, there were 2.3 million black students enrolled in universities in the fall of 2021, with white students at 9.2 million. About 45 percent of black students come from high-poverty schools while on the other hand, white students are only at 8 percent (Cai, 2020). Just like all good things affirmative action is not perfect and has many shortfalls. While affirmative action does push for there to be more diversity it also promotes discrimination toward those who are not a part of a group that has a history of being discriminated against. When the focus is completely on making sure certain genders and races are being included, there is a tendency to only look to help those groups of people which results in others being left at a disadvantage (Shteynberg et al., 2011). One of the biggest issues for minority groups is their achievements always getting called into question. When someone from a minority group has a big achievement like landing a job or getting a promotion at work, it is followed by the assumption that they did not work for their position or job and is just the result of policies like Affirmative Action. Policies like affirmative Action also push employees to look to fill the diversity quotes and overlook good and highly qualified applicants due to Affirmative Action and similar policies. Affirmative Action has not had a positive effect on interpersonal relationships. There are many people who think that many people of color or women have gotten a position or a job over 3

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