Affirmative Action
In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act which introduced affirmative action along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Affirmative Action: Facts and Myths). This was during the time when blacks were emerging from the chains of segregation resulting from slavery. In this time discrimination was common and the problem of discrimination very apparent. In this era anyone that was not a white male was discriminated against on a regular basis. The solution to this problem at the time was affirmative action and the EEOC. Affirmative action is defined as a policy or a program that seeks to redress past discrimination through active measures to ensure equal opportunity, as in education and employment, which brings me to my point. The idea of affirmative action was suitable in the time period in which it was written, but times have changed and the law needs to change in cooperation. I strongly believe in the idea that affirmative action proposes, but at the same time many people are being cheated out of career and educational opportunities because of the abuse of the plan. The way it is interpreted now, affirmative action gives minorities an unfair advantage over whites. The founders of the plan dev
eloped it in an attempt to distribute opportunity equally among all of America’s residents. Now companies have quotas set on diversity in the office, and will hire a less qualified minority just to meet them. The Supreme Court’s Bakke decision in 1978 ruled numerical goals and quotas regarding ethnicity and gender illegal . In 1995 the Congressional Research Service turned up 160 laws and regulations one third of which are still enforced laws setting numerical goals and quotas. In 1994 the Los Angeles Fire Department refused five thousand white men from taking their qualifying test because the department had not yet met its minority and gender hiring goals . If a house or a building is on fire, the firefighters’ gender or ethnic background should not play a role in comparison with their ability to save people’s lives. The Los Angeles Fire Department is going to be short of able firefighters because they have not met their quota on diversity. In such cases, affirmative action is not working for the good of the public like it was meant to. Educational benefits can also be suffered which can, in turn, have long term effects. At the University of Texas Law School a minority admissions program is set aside for blacks and Mexican-Americans. When a white applicant with a 3.8 college grade point average was refused admission, school officials openly stated that she probably would have been admitted had she been one of the recognized minorities. It is not fair to qualify someone due to the color of his or her skin, ethnic background, or gender. Positions should be reserved for applicants who have the qualities to complete their duty to the best of their ability. People are not entitled to a position because of the color of their skin but rather because of the hard work they have put into working their way to the top. Another problem with the affirmative action plan is t
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Approximate Word count = 1269
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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