Environmental Issues Essay, Research Paper

Herman Belz?s stance on the issue of affirmative action suggests that he is against selective employment. He discusses both sides of the issue, therefore making his argument fairer. He backs up his thoughts by talking with various professionals in the industry of affirmative action.

He begins by talking about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how it pretty much preached indifference throughout the private employment workplace. He talks about how Title VII states that groups under law cannot be discriminated against, but individuals can. It seemed the law protected minorities in a whole but when individuals were dealt with the law was not the same.

His next point that he brings up deals with disparate impact discrimination meaning ?the unintentional exclusion of blacks from jobs constituted discrimination.? After this law was implemented employers needed to have a certain amount of spots available for minorities or it was considered illegal. Belz than argues that this is reverse discrimination because if a white person is more qualified than a black person for the job, why should the black person receive the job solely because he is black. With this idea being implemented an employer has a lot of stress on him/her because he might have a great number of white workers, but now the law requires him to hire minorities, which he does not need currently because his business is doing just fine.

Belz?s next point states how the constitution says equal protection to all people no matter what color or religion they are. Than basically he says that blacks now have a law protecting them from the original constitution, which is not fair because all people should be considered equal under the constitution.

Another point made by Belz is when he says that people should not assume that if there was no discrimination that their would not be equal number of minorities in the workplace. Belz feels that employment should be offered to the most qualified individuals and not to individuals of minorities.

The final point made by Belz is that when a minority receives help from affirmative action he/she is not actually receiving the job from their skill level but solely because of their race. Harvey Mansfield says that individuals of minorities are not able to help themselves so basically they require assistance from the government. Belz believes that the government should re-think the affirmative action program and start to the back the innate rights of the people.