Essay/Term paper: Affirmative action

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Affirmative Action

The roots of Affirmative Action can be traced back to the passage of
the Civil Rights Act where legislation redefined public and private behavior.
The act states that to discriminate in private is legal, but anything
regarding business or public discrimination is illegal. There are two
instances when opposing affirmative action might seem the wrong thing to do.
The nobility of the cause that help others. Affirmative Action was a great
starter for equality in the work place. The most promanite variable in
deciding Affirmative Action as right or wrong, is whether or not society is
going to treat people as groups or individuals. Affirmative Action is a
question of morals. The simplicity to form two morals that are both correct
but conflicting is the reason for the division of our nation on Affirmative
Action.
Affirmative Action is very noble when looking at who benefits from the
outcome. Let us take a closer look at Affirmative Action. The people that
are involved and the damage it takes on our society arouses many doubts.
Taking a closer look also stirs up a question of nobility that needs to be
answered before making a decision on Affirmative Action. Does Affirmative
Action simply change who is discriminated against and makes it legal for the
new discriminators? Coming from my point of view, the view of a white male,
this is a serious question. The job reviews of supervisors and others
involved in hiring should address race and sex. Each review should have a
hiring goal of at least half of our new employees being women and at least
half non-white. Lets put this strategy to work. We have ten positions to
fill, these positions can be filled following the above guidelines by hiring
five black women. It can also be met by hiring five white women and five
non-white men. Obviously to successfully meet this goal would mean to not
hire a white male. People strongly disagree with their white forefathers and
society today which address race and sex when hiring. Using a persons skin
color in hiring is discrimination no matter how society looks at it.
The whole idea behind Affirmative Action is to right the wrongs of the
past. Well, what about the individuals that were not even born when this
atrocity of discrimination was going on? Society should not punish the youth
for the crimes of their white male forefathers. These are the battles that
need to be fought. We must stop employers from hiring in a discriminatory
fashion, not to just favor the group that has been discriminated against in
the past. Not only does it affect white males, but the recipients of
Affirmative Action suffer from negative side effects also. There is an angry
backlash that women and minorities feel from Affirmative Action. There is
also the effect of pampering. It can make any individual lazy and
unmotivated. Affirmative Action does nothing but build walls to separate us
more, and pollute our work atmosphere with tension.
An angry backlash towards the recipients of Affirmative Action appears
prominently in the work place. An example of Affirmative Action backlash is
when an advantage is not an advantage. Affirmative Action weakens the spirit
of the individual by making them think the reason they got the job or grant
was because someone felt sorry for them. Some women believe Affirmative
Action will benefit them in the beginning because there is an incentive to
hire women. This will do more to hinder than to help in the long run.
Affirmative Action helps to get a female an interview but once on the
interview and once on the job, it gives males a basis for their resentment
and skepticism of females. This can cause additional tension between men and
women that was not there before affirmative action.
Another side effect is how pampering can make a person lazy and
unmotivated to excel. This is exactly what affirmative action does. It makes
sure that women and minorities are pampered to make up for lost time. Well,
let's take a look at what all the pampering in the past has done for the
white male. Look at the college graduation numbers of today. Eighty percent
of blacks attending college graduate, while only 55% of white college
students graduate. These numbers alone show what discrimination did to help
the white male to achieve a lazy attitude of "I don't need good grades, I am
white I'll get a good job." This is a dangerous attitude, because in some
situations a white male needs to be over qualified to compensate for small
"bonus points" some minorities receive. By pampering any single group the
long-term disaster will outweigh the short term relief.
Discrimination is not the problem that plagues society. This is shown
with the increase of women in the work force. About thirty years ago this was
not the case, and affirmative action forced American employers to open their
eyes to the benefits of diversity. Now it is time to end Affirmative Action
and focus on what is holding down minorities today. Let us turn our sites on
poverty, poor family life, poor schooling, for these problems are colorblind,
and can hinder an individuals chances for success more than anything else. To
equal the opportunity of minorities for employment we should educate and
prepare them, not force them into the work force or Universities.
Some Universities here in the United States have based enrollment
on College Board's and SAT's or ACT's, none of which show intelligence
levels. Rather these test's show the standards of education that the
individual has encountered. These test scores sometimes become a form of
discrimination against minorities. Because they are not fluent in how the
test are held and are supposed to know the same amount. Another form of
evaluating students is where the Universities and government need to focus,
to establish a standard in education that spans across all levels of income.
Affirmative Action is definitely not the answer for equality today. Now it is
time to apply new moral threats, not towards the employers and colleges but
towards the government. For it is the government that needs to change its
polices.
The government needs to take action towards the real problems of
equality: poverty, not the bad white man from the past. Affirmative action is
simply the same old discrimination in reverse. It seems that the minorities
are the ones with the advantage when there should be no advantage to anyone.