Essay on Affirmative Action is Discrimination in a New Form

There are many supporters and opponents of Affirmative Action. The focus of Affirmative action is meant to be an attempt at equality throughout society. Every sector in America would be equal and unprejudiced. On the other hand, adopting affirmative action would force many employers to replace hard-working employees with those possibly less qualified simply due to their gender or ethnicity. Throughout history, people have been categorized into different groups. These groupings were based on certain characteristics people shared, whether it was their ethnicity, race, gender, or religion. Society is notorious for distinguishing among different groups and favoring one or two of them. Undoubtedly, this separation of peoples, led to increased tension between various groups. As time progressed, the conflicts intensified, and it became apparent that a change was necessary. So I intend to educate the reader on the origin of Affirmative Action; how it impacted the American society; is it still needed in today’s environment; what are some of the drawbacks or issues that came from implementing Affirmative Action, and finally what is the most beneficial aspect from Affirmative Action. One of the most famous quotes about Affirmative Action comes from President Lyndon Johnson who explained the rationale behind the use of affirmative action to achieve equal opportunity in a 1965 speech: “You do not take a person, who for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring

Affirmative Action has become one of the most controversial issues regarding college admissions. It is an issue that exposes profiling to its highest extent. Race, gender and income now become vital factors in education opportunities. Affirmative Action is the procedure that is used as a criteria in admissions that will increase the points a college applicant receives on their application evaluation based on the previous factors. Whether race should be considered in the admission of a college applicant, is without a doubt a must in all states. Affirmative Action definitely will improve the opportunities of a minority student applying at a university but it will not be the deciding factor. When

Affirmative action was created to assist minority groups against discrimination, but affirmative action does more harm than what it can do to help. Affirmative action was created with the intention of leveling the playing field so that everyone can have an equal opportunity to be hired or accepted in to a school, but it does the opposite of what it is meant to do. Affirmative action is reverse discrimination against white males, lesser qualified people are admitted into jobs and colleges, and not all people have an equal opportunity to advance.

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.

     The third major reason why affirmative action should not exist is that it completely contradicts its purpose. Its purpose is to create a colorblind society. But in reality, it forces people to look at race by mandating quotas. The thinking behind affirmative action is to eliminate racism, we must first take race into account. Yet this causes a judgmental atmosphere in which many people feel cheated because the focus has been taken off the individual and placed everyone into groups based on race and gender.

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

In the article Diversity in the Workplace, written by Kenneth Jost published on October 10th 1997, reads about the changes job settings face because diversity is being encouraged. The statistics, in this article, prove that there was more white males employed than other genders and races, but this issue is decreasing over the years because of diversity awareness. Later, the article spoke about affirmative action, and diversity training being created to help minorities receive equal employment opportunities. Also, affirmative action was created to help minorities with college and university admissions. The visible change lead white males to feel threatened that their jobs were being taken. 56 percent of white males believed these programs that

Affirmative Action Affirmative Action efforts were started in 1964 to end the long history of overlooking qualified people of color and women from higher education. Affirmative Action sets standards for a business or office of admissions, so that a white man does not have the upper-hand over an equally or greater educated minority. The initial way the government tried to justify Affirmative Action was to develop a human resource approach: first identifying the problem, which is racism then establishing the solution (Phillips 67). The intent of Affirmative Action helps cut down discrimination in the work place and in schools, despite the fact that some believe that affirmative action is a

Affirmative action, is still needed today for many reasons relating to past, present and in ways unforeseen into the future, whereas the negative past should not repeat itself in the present or future. Affirmative action should continuously be reviewed by all groups of nationals in the present and future. Racial preferences were so unconstitutional to more recent times, that affirmative action was implemented to protect those individual ethnic groups which have been discriminated upon whether they were a United States citizen or not, but living in the United States. There needed to be a way for all people to receive fair employment in society.

Affirmative action is a strategy formed during the Civil Rights Movement in response to the prejudiced approach toward African American citizens in the American community. The policy advocates these citizens in particular conditions to avoid the unfairness they would usually receive. To explain why the system needed to be adjusted to be equal for everyone. It is essential to realize that African Americans came to America as laborers (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.

There were claims made on the education sector, military and other areas of the economy. In the debate, both sides acknowledged the existence of discrimination across various sectors in the United States. The debate was aimed at finding the right solutions to such unfairness. Side A posited that there was no need for affirmative action considering that the fore fathers have been instrumental in enhancing such aspects of fairness and at present, such efforts are paying back. This is because there are many women professors while more women have taken up leadership positions compared to few decades ago. The existence of discrimination cannot be erased by the use of affirmative action because that is not the right way to address the issue of discrimination. Irrespective of there being affirmative action in place, such policies are rarely followed in different sectors like the military. Side B believes that through affirmative action, it would be easier to look at the statistics of a given region and find minorities in different spheres of representation. Without such actions, the minorities will continue to lack confidence, believe they are sidelined by the government of the day and cause intolerance among such minority

Affirmative Action has been an issue of contention since its inception during the Civil Rights struggles of mid 20th century America. Discrimination could no longer be tolerated and the Unites States government had an obligation to encourage equality at all levels of the social infrastructure. The main type of discrimination being addressed by Affirmative Action programs was racial discrimination. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines racism as: ‘a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.’ The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination of any kind, laid the foundation for the introduction of Affirmative Action

There are three applicants for the job offering. One applicant is a white male age 35 who has six years of on the job experience. The other three are an Asian female, black male, and white female. Two of these minority applicants have no practical experience and the other only a few years. In order for the company to meet the quota, the company must automatically reject the white male and only look at the other three applicants. The company now is no longer looking for good experienced employees; instead, they are trying to appear fair. This so called ?equal opportunity? is not what it says. This means that they provide ?equal opportunity for minorities.? They are now discriminating against majorities, which goes against the original initiative for civil rights.

Affirmative action in this time and place is a very hard area to keep in place when it comes to keeping jobs even at work for the employees. Sometimes this type of equality in the working world can be good and sometimes it can be bad, but it depends on how it is used that really makes how a person can feel when it comes to this type of treatment of employees no matter what color or sex a person is during this time period.

The idea of Affirmative action was first brought up by JFK to ensure equality in employment for all people regardless of their race, creed, color, or national origin. However, Many institutions such as college took advantage of “equality” as an excuse to admit students based on their race rather than their merits. AB 1726, also known as the Accounting for Health and Education in API Demographics (AHEAD) Act, was first proposed by California Assemblyman Rob Bonta (California Legislative Information). It is a data disaggregation bill that intends to help better address the disparity in public health and education among API(Asian Pacific Islander)group by adding additional major Asian groups, including Bangladeshi, Hmong, Indonesian,