Affirmative Action Essay, Research Paper

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.