The Pros And Cons Of Affirmative Action

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Before the idea of affirmative action came into existence, there was the President’s committee on Public Contracts which was designed to oversee federal agencies’ efforts to ensure nondiscrimination in firms with government contracts, the committee could receive complaints of discrimination, conduct educational campaigns, make recommendations to agencies on how to combat discrimination, receive agency enforcement reports, and establish ties with private and public organizations working on equal employment issues.
When the PCGC was first introduced, it was not well received because it endured criticism from various scholars because it was ineffective. The PCGC did not effectively provide African Americans with jobs. In response to the PCGC’s ineffectiveness, Affirmative Action was introduced. When it began, it received criticism because “affirmative action’s focus on ‘color consciousness’ and ‘equal results’ contrasted sharply with earlier models based on ‘color blindness’ and ‘equal …show more content…

Some accuse the New Deal of being associated with black racial awareness. Surgrue contends Affirmative action has been the most fiercely contested legacy of the civil rights era […] The conventional narratives about affirmative action emphasize its role in the fragmentation of an interracial New Deal coalition, its entanglement with growing black racial consciousness, and its challenge to an allegedly long-standing policy of "color blindness”. Even though Affirmative Action was created in the civil rights movement, it still is receiving backlash. People assert that instead of making people “color blind”, it makes people “color conscious”. What people who disputed affirmative action fail to realize is people are always going to be color conscious. Affirmative Action was designed to make sure people’s color consciousness does not get in the way of equal

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