Affirmative Action And Its Effects On The United States

Ever since President John Kennedy issued executive order 10925 in 1961, Americans have been arguing both for and against its effectiveness and necessity. The importance of executive order 10925 is that it created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and mandated that federally funded projects implement "affirmative action" to insure that hiring and employment practices were free of racial bias. It planned to accomplish this by combating long term racial failures. Essentially, its purpose was to promote equality through fair and equal employment regardless of race. However, many believe that the current practice of hiring and recruiting based on race is counterproductive to the original purpose of executive order 10925 in that employers

Affirmative action legislation in the United States has its basic framework in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which mandates that firms with more than 15 employees are subject to a variety of anti-discrimination policies, more of which were passed in subsequent years. In some cases, the concept of affirmative action was taken to be a voluntary act to attain diversity. For the most part, however, courts have interpreted affirmative action laws as having little teeth under the Constitution. It has been suggested that "racial preferences in federal law or policy are a remedy of last resort" (Dale, 2005)

There are many supporters and opponents of Affirmative Action. The focus of Affirmative action is meant to be an attempt at equality throughout society. Every sector in America would be equal and unprejudiced. On the other hand, adopting affirmative action would force many employers to replace hard-working employees with those possibly less qualified simply due to their gender or ethnicity. Throughout history, people have been categorized into different groups. These groupings were based on certain characteristics people shared, whether it was their ethnicity, race, gender, or religion. Society is notorious for distinguishing among different groups and favoring one or two of them. Undoubtedly, this separation of peoples, led to increased tension between various groups. As time progressed, the conflicts intensified, and it became apparent that a change was necessary. So I intend to educate the reader on the origin of Affirmative Action; how it impacted the American society; is it still needed in today’s environment; what are some of the drawbacks or issues that came from implementing Affirmative Action, and finally what is the most beneficial aspect from Affirmative Action. One of the most famous quotes about Affirmative Action comes from President Lyndon Johnson who explained the rationale behind the use of affirmative action to achieve equal opportunity in a 1965 speech: “You do not take a person, who for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring

Affirmative Action is one of the many social issues facing America today. Affirmative action was signed into place in 1961 by President Kennedy and allows minority groups or people who face discrimination to become employed or get an education that is equal to that of a white male. Groups that Affirmative Action aims to help are women, blacks, Latinos, and people with disabilities. While these policies were signed to slowly rid the workforce and schools from discrimination, it hurts people who do not face discrimination, specifically whites. Many white men and women lose special opportunities to work or go to college because of certain standards that the Affirmative Action laws require. Universities and the military require a certain number of minorities in order to meet the standards and have a more diverse atmosphere. An example of this is the California V. Bakke supreme court case of 1978.

Affirmative Action began in 1965 when President Johnson signed the Executive Order 11246 in to law. The Executive Order prevents federal contractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The phrase “affirmative action” was first coined, when federal contractors were required to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants were not discriminated against in anyway. When affirmative action was created, it only included minorities. In 1967, Johnson decided to expand the program to include women because women were discriminated against much like minorities. In the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, affirmative action was a method used to stop

Affirmative Action has had a very tumultuous 54-year history. Affirmative action was a strategy that forged the Civil Rights Movement in response to the prejudiced approach toward African American citizens in the United States. The policy advocates that black citizens in particular conditions to avoid the unfairness they would usually receive. To try and explain why the methods and laws needed to be adjusted to be equal for everyone. It is essential to realize that 20 Africans came to America in 1619, records are not clear if they were slaves or indentured servants. It was until 1640 when the first African in Jamestown Virginia was declared a slave. The Court ordered that the slave had to serve his master for the rest of his life. The slaves made to work long hours and numerous slaves’ endured inhuman treatment and underwent severe injuries. American citizens in the South challenged a lengthy campaign to seek to continue to be permitted to own slaves but through Lincoln and abolitionist slave-owning was ultimately banished.

Affirmative action came into effect back in 1960. Affirmative action, “policies are those in which an institution or organization actively engages in efforts to improve opportunities for historically excluded groups in American society” (Overview). Back in 1961, “President Kennedy was the first to use the term “affirmative action” in the Executive Order that directed government the contractors take affirmative action to ensure that applicants were employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national” (Overview). Affirmative action provides the much needed diversity for the business environment to prosper. If affirmative action is not properly incorporated, it can hinder the business

Affirmative Action remains one of the more complicated and controversial topics dealt with in American society. Affirmative Action is an action or policy designed to protect specific groups who suffer from discrimination, and provide them with programs and special opportunities. These government or private programs were designed to set right historical injustices towards the members of these groups who have suffered things like employment and educational disadvantages from racial discrimination. The goal for these actions are to redress past wrong doings by fixing things like inequalities in employment and pay, as well as increasing opportunities for education. By achieving this, the outcome would restore equal access and opportunity in favor of the members of these groups. These groups generally consist of certain minorities that have suffered from social ills such as slavery and segregation.

A reflection on the society depicts the fact that it is composed of individuals with varying differences aligned with gender, race, socio-economic status, and education levels. While it is true that all people should be equal irrespective of these factors, there is a need to note that there exist a persistent discrimination of various people. Affirmative action has often been poised as the most comprehensive means through which equality can be attained. While much has been hypothesized regarding affirmative action, it is of the essence to note that it mainly connotes to actions and policies that are intended to ensure equality for all people regardless of the differences they exhibit (Bridges 73). Affirmative action is established with the sole intent of assuring equal opportunities for all. From this analysis, it can be deduced that the scope of affirmative action is to assure equality between minority and majority groups.

Affirmative Action is an outcome of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement. Its purpose is to provide equal opportunities for members of minority groups and women in education and employment. It is not until 1961 did the term “affirmative action” was first used by President John F. Kennedy. He made it very clear in an Executive Order that directed government have to take “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” Since a lot of cooperation still tends to hire white male, by enforcing affirmative action, the number of minority groups and women in the labor force will increase.Affirmative Action helps to eliminate the imbalance in the society and reform the American system. The US Department of Labor describes affirmative action as the banning of discrimination.

Some would argue that affirmative action only hurts those of minority, I would agree. Affirmative action allows those of minority the ability to attend school on race and not so much academics. Using this as a standard to allow students into a school not only hurts a student but the university as well. When students are allowed to enter a university because of race and not their abilities it only hinders that student. There have been several court cases sense the beginning of affirmative action, most of which have upheld the AA rule.

Affirmative action was created to increase the number of people from certain social groups in employment, education, business, government, and other areas (LaNoue, G., 2010). This policy is geared toward women, and minorities such as African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, and disabled people. Generally speaking, Affirmative Action was put into place to benefit groups that are thought to have suffered from discrimination. Some believe that affirmative action is just a means for minorities to get ahead, but the benefit is for minorities to first of all

Discriminating against people for their sex and race was already illegal. People began to realize that simply preventing further discrimination did not make up for the past discrimination that people in minority groups went through. Due to the previous discrimination, members of the minority did not have the experience, status, or contacts to perform as well as those who were not (Gorman 1143). The reason Affirmative Action was created is because people that had been discriminated against needed a chance to “catch up” to the group that did not suffer (“Affirmative Action” Gale).

Affirmative action was created to assist minority groups against discrimination, but affirmative action does more harm than what it can do to help. Affirmative action was created with the intention of leveling the playing field so that everyone can have an equal opportunity to be hired or accepted in to a school, but it does the opposite of what it is meant to do. Affirmative action is reverse discrimination against white males, lesser qualified people are admitted into jobs and colleges, and not all people have an equal opportunity to advance.

When looking at Affirmative Action as a whole there are a lot of generalizations that are often made. Some of these include that it is only helping the minority, these people do not deserve the job, they only got into school/job because of their race or ethnic group. I feel like these are some of the main generalizations that you commonly see in today’s society. Some of the strengths would be that it is giving those whom may have been turned down a chance to go to college or get the job now have a way of being higher up on admissions and employers lists. With strengths comes weaknesses which would be that those whom come from a rough background or life often do not have the same opportunities as those whom have not.