Essay/Term paper: Affirmative action

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Politics

After the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, it became
apparent that certain business traditions, such as seniority status and aptitude tests,
prevented total equality in employment. Then President, Lyndon B. Johnson, decided
something needed to be done to remedy these flaws. On September 24, 1965, he issued
Executive Order #11246 at Howard University that required federal contractors "to take
Affirmative Action to ensure that applicants are employed . . . without regard to their race,
creed, color, or national origin (Civil Rights)." With the signing of that order, and without
knowing it, President Johnson created reverse discrimination.

Affirmative Action was created in an effort to help minorities leap the
discriminative barriers that were ever so present when the bill was first enacted, in 1965.
At this time, the country was in the wake of nationwide civil-rights demonstrations, and
racial tension was at an all time high. Most of the corporate executive and managerial
positions were occupied by White Males, who controlled the hiring and firing of
employees. The U.S. government, in 1965, believed that these employers were
discriminating against Minorities and believed that there was no better time than the
present to bring about change. This action, that started with good intentions, would later
lead to a different and more complex form of discrimination.

When the Civil Rights Law passed, Minorities, especially African-Americans,
believed that they should receive retribution for the earlier years of discrimination they
endured. The government responded by passing laws to aide them in attaining better
employment as reprieve for the previous two hundred years of suffering their race endured
at the hands of the White Man. To many people the passing of these laws was an effort in
the right direction. Supporters of Affirmative Action asked, "why not let the government
help them get better jobs?" After all, the White Man was responsible for their suffering.
While this may all be true, there is another question to be asked. Are we truly responsible
for the years of persecution that the African Americans and other Minorities were
submitted to? I am not so sure.

It is true that past generations of White Men are partly responsible for the
suppression of the African-American race. However, the modern White Male is not
responsible for the past. It is just as unfair and suppressive to hold White Males
responsible for past persecution now, as it was to discriminate against many African-
Americans in the generations before. Why should an honest, hard-working, open minded,
White Male be suppressed, today, for past injustice? Affirmative Action, in it's current
function seems to accept and condone the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Do two wrongs really make a right? Definitely not, in my opinion. If Affirmative Action
accomplished strictly what it was set out to do, that would be fine, but all it seems to be
doing is turning around the tables, instead of alleviating the problem at hand.

Affirmative Action supporters make one large assumption when defending the
policy. They assume that Minority groups want help. This, however, may not always be
the case. My experience with Minorities has led me to believe that they fought to attain
equality, not special treatment. To them, the acceptance of special treatment might be an
admittance of inferiority. They ask, "Why can"t I become successful on my own? Why do
I need laws to help me get a job?" These African Americans want to be treated as equals,
not as incompetents. In my Idealistic world neither Black, White, Mexican, Asian,
Woman or Man should need nothing, except their skills.

In a statement released in 1981 by the United States Commission on Civil Rights,
Jack P. Hartog, who directed the Affirmative Action Project, said: "Only if discrimination
were nothing more than the misguided acts of a few prejudiced individuals, would
Affirmative Actions plans be "reverse discrimination." If today"s society were operating
fairly toward Minorities and Women, would measures that take race, sex, and national
origin into account be "preferential treatment?" Only if discrimination were securely
placed in a well-distant past, would Affirmative Action be an unneeded and drastic
remedy". What the commission failed to realize was that there are hundreds of thousands
of White Males who are not discriminating, yet are being punished because of those who
do.
The Northern Natural Gas Company of Omaha, Nebraska, was forced by the
government to release sixty-five White Male workers to make room for Minority
employees in 1977 (Nebraska Advisory Committee 40). Five major Omaha corporations
reported that the number of White managers fell 25% in 1969 due to restrictions put on
them when Affirmative Action was adopted (Nebraska Advisory Committee 27). You
ask, "What did these individuals do to bring about their termination?" The only crime that
they were guilty of was being White.

The injustice toward the White Male does not end there. After the White Male has
been fired, he has to go out and find a new job to support his family, that depended on the
company, to provide health care and a retirement plan, in return for years of hard work.
Now, because of Affirmative Action, this White Male, and the thousands like him, require
more skills to get the same job that a lesser qualified African-American Male needs. This
is, for all intents and purposes, discrimination, and it is a law that our government strictly
enforces.

Affirmative Action is not only unfair for the working man, it is extremely
discriminatory toward the executive, as well. The average business executive has one goal
in mind, and that is to maximize profits. To reach his goal, this executive would naturally
hire the most competent Man or Woman for the job, whether they be African-American or
White or any other race. Why would a business man intentionally cause his business to
lose money by hiring a poorly qualified worker? Most businesses would not. With this in
mind, it seems unnecessary to employ any policy that would cause him to do otherwise.
But, that is exactly what Affirmative Action does in todays society. It forces an employer,
who needs to meet a quota established by the government, to hire a Minority, no matter
who is more qualified.

Another way that Affirmative Action deducts from a company"s profits is by
forcing them to create jobs for Minorities. This occurs when a company does not meet its
quota with existing employees and has to find places to put minorities. These jobs are
often unnecessary, and force a company to pay for workers that they do not need.

Affirmative Action is not only present in the work place. It is also very powerful
in education. Just as a White Male employee needs more credentials to get a job than his
minority opponent, a White Male student needs more or better skills to get accepted at a
prestigious university than a Minority student. There are complete sections on college
applications dedicated to race and ethnic background. Colleges must now have a
completely diverse student body, even if that means some, more qualified students, must
be turned away. A perfect example of this can be found at the University of California at
Berkeley. A 1995 report released by the university said that 9.7% of all accepted
applicants were African American. Only 0.8% of these African American students were
accepted by academic criteria alone. 36.8% of the accepted applicants were White. Of
these accepted white students, 47.9% were accepted on academic criteria alone. That
means that approximately sixty times more African American students were accepted due
to non-academic influences than White students. It seems hard to believe that Affirmative
Action wasn"t one of outside influence.

Another interesting fact included in the 1995 report said that the average grade
point average for a rejected White student was 3.66 with an average SAT score of 1142.
The average grade point average for an accepted African American student was 3.66 with
a 1030 average SAT score. These stunning facts shows just how many competent, if not
gifted students fall between the cracks as a direct result of Affirmative Action.

If it has been unclear up to this point I would like to make it clear. My problem is
strictly with Affirmative Action. If the true goal is to end discrimination and suppression
of people as a whole, then the way Affirmative Action is currently being implemented
needs to change. At present it only seems to be giving some an easy way out and others a
firewall that can be difficult to get through. I don't think that is healthy for either party
involved. Affirmative Action has truly become a form of reverse discrimination. I really
believe that there are other ways to conquer these problems. Society needs to work
towards broad based economic policies like public investment, national health reform, an
enlarged income tax credit, child support assurance, and other policies benefiting families
with young children. Widely supported programs that promote the interests of both lower
and middle class Americans that deliver benefits to Minorities and Whites on the basis of
their economic status, and not their race or ethnicity, will do more to reduce Minority
poverty than the current, narrowly based, poorly supported policies that single out
Minority groups. However, if this, or another remedy is not taken sometime in the near
future, and Affirmative Action continues to separate Minority groups from Whites, we can
be sure to see racial tension reach points that our history has never seen.





Works Cited

"Affirmative Action at the University of California at Berkeley"
Online. http://pwa.acusd.edu/~e_cook/ucb-95.html

"Civil Rights" Compton"s Interactive Encyclopedia. (1996).
[Computer Program] SoftKey Multimedia International Corporation.

United States. Commission on Civil Rights. Affirmative Action in the
1980"s: Dismantling the Process of Discrimination. Washington: 1981.

United States. Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights. Private Sector Affirmative Action: Omaha. Washington: 1979.