Affirmative Action And Employment At Will

The Founding Fathers wanted all men to be treated equal. The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson, 1776). Unfortunately, equality for everyone has not been truly realized. The main issues affected were people’s skin color and gender. Women and people of color were not considered to be equal for many years. To correct this issue Affirmative Action was implemented. Affirmative Action helped people of color and women to be considered for jobs and accepted into colleges equally among other candidates. Today, equality between races and genders has improved, although Affirmative Action should be modified to meet the needs of today’s society.

The term "affirmative action" was first used back in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy in an executive order designed to encourage racially mixed work forces.

Affirmative Action is one of the many social issues facing America today. Affirmative action was signed into place in 1961 by President Kennedy and allows minority groups or people who face discrimination to become employed or get an education that is equal to that of a white male. Groups that Affirmative Action aims to help are women, blacks, Latinos, and people with disabilities. While these policies were signed to slowly rid the workforce and schools from discrimination, it hurts people who do not face discrimination, specifically whites. Many white men and women lose special opportunities to work or go to college because of certain standards that the Affirmative Action laws require. Universities and the military require a certain number of minorities in order to meet the standards and have a more diverse atmosphere. An example of this is the California V. Bakke supreme court case of 1978.

According to Newman, affirmative action is a “program designed to seek out members of minority groups for positions from which they had previously been excluded, thereby seeking to overcome some institutional racism” (Newman, 536). Affirmative action made its debut with a piece of legislature passed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and continues to this day. However, the concept of affirmative action is a controversial issue that continues to be hotly debated.

Affirmative action was an outcome of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. In the past, affirmative action has been used to improve opportunities with education and employment for excluded minority groups in American society President Kennedy was the first to use this term “in an Executive order that directed government contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin” (Affirmative Action, 2014).

Affirmative Action began in 1965 when President Johnson signed the Executive Order 11246 in to law. The Executive Order prevents federal contractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The phrase “affirmative action” was first coined, when federal contractors were required to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants were not discriminated against in anyway. When affirmative action was created, it only included minorities. In 1967, Johnson decided to expand the program to include women because women were discriminated against much like minorities. In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, affirmative action was a method used to stop

Affirmative Action has had a very tumultuous 54-year history. Affirmative action was a strategy that forged the Civil Rights Movement in response to the prejudiced approach toward African American citizens in the United States. The policy advocates that black citizens in particular conditions to avoid the unfairness they would usually receive. To try and explain why the methods and laws needed to be adjusted to be equal for everyone. It is essential to realize that 20 Africans came to America in 1619, records are not clear if they were slaves or indentured servants. It was until 1640 when the first African in Jamestown Virginia was declared a slave. The Court ordered that the slave had to serve his master for the rest of his life. The slaves made to work long hours and numerous slaves’ endured inhuman treatment and underwent severe injuries. American citizens in the South challenged a lengthy campaign to seek to continue to be permitted to own slaves but through Lincoln and abolitionist slave-owning was ultimately banished.

The history of how Affirmative Action came to is very simple. President John Kennedy issued executive order 10925 in 1961. This created the Committee on Equal Employment and ordered that federally funded projects to take “affirmative action”. This is

For example in 1968, In Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., the Court held that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 would ban racial discrimination in housing by private and governmental housing providers. In addition, in 1971, the Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education case led to the Court ruling that busing was an appropriate legal tool for addressing illegal segregation of the schools. Furthermore, In Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971), the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits intentional job discrimination and employer practices that have discriminatory effects on minorities. The Court held tests as well as other employment practices that disproportionately screened out African American applicants for jobs at the Duke Power Company were prohibited when the tests were not shown to be

Today affirmative action and other racial injustices tend to be in the spotlight quite often, such as in “Fisher v University of Texas at Austin” case which highlighted that many highly qualified white prospective students are passed over for less qualified minority students to attempt to make the university more diverse using the affirmative action initiative (“Voices: Affirmative Action”). Affirmative action or positive discrimination is a policy in which those who have been discriminated on in the past or who tend to be discriminated on presently are favored, usually in relation to education or jobs. It was introduced by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to attempt to reduce the discrimination still continuing despite the civil rights movements. Later it was further developed and enforced by President Lyndon B. Johnson. A professor of English at San Jose University, Shelby Steele, an African American man, spoke of his views of the negative impacts of affirmative action in his book, “The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America.” In Steele’s book he discredits

The history of affirmative action goes back farther than one might think. Affirmative action is not a new concept. It has

Affirmative Action was one of the major solution of the 1960's Civil Rights Movement, intended to provide all equal situations and opportunities to the people of minorities groups in education and employment. According to President Kennedy, he decided to use the term "Affirmative Action" in an Executive Order that directed the government contractors to hire all kinds of people and make sure that employees are treated fairly during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin. It was created to help those races who have been historically suffering under segregation to get representation in society and to balance the income disparity. It has been the special tool box that the government uses to accelerate the progress

A way to achieve fair employment for all people happened when in 1961 then President John Kennedy, used the phrase “affirmative action” in the United States in which it attributed to Executive Oder 10925”. (Sterba, 2009, p.15) The reality was that businesses needed a way to hold accountability for employee’s r applicants to be treated fairly in promotion decisions and the hiring process. Employment discrimination and segregation was legal in the United States before 1964. White workers and black workers during that time almost never worked together in the same jobs, minorities were grouped in lower paying and less status jobs. During that era, white males held the professional jobs, managerial positions, and the highly

Student affairs and higher education professionals must be familiar with legal obligations in regards to their diversity efforts policies in order to be fully compliant and successful in their endeavors.

Affirmative Action is constantly seen as an unfair intentional treatment to classes not protected by anti-discrimination laws. This paper will describe the elements of affirmative action and how it applies to employees in the private and public sector. It will also show how affirmative action interacts with Title VII requirements of Equal Employment Opportunity.