Affirmative Action

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Introduction
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 discrimination, however in today’s world it has become reverse discrimination in many cases. Everyone has the opportunity to contribute to society. The color of one’s skin does not determine how capable he or she is at achieving greatness. This paper will analyze Affirmative Action and determine its appropriateness in today’s society.
Literature Review
As stated above, affirmative action promotes reverse discrimination. Basically reverse discrimination is the condition under which there is preferential treatment of one group (minorities and women) over another group, rather than equal opportunity. Giving the job positions to less qualified candidates is favoritism; this harms those who should be obtaining the job position. A dedicated person who worked hard his or her whole life could lose a position to a minority that slipped into the position undeservingly. The whole purpose of affirmative action was to eliminate favoritism; instead it shifts favoritism to the other side. Favoritism of this sort does nothing but imply that minorities need special treatment to succeed in life. Highly merited minorities (past professors) have told me personally that minorities do not need special treatment; they need equal treatment. They (past professors) told me that affirmative action implies that all minorities are inferior to whites and that minorities need to be treated with special care just to have a chance to become successful. The affirmative action program also undermines their (past professors) achievements of minorities by implying that their positions were handed to them rather than being earned. It seems that they also disagree with...

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...reach the ideas set forth by Martin Luther King Jr. King hated for his children to be judged for the color of their skin instead of their character. How would he see affirmative action in 2004? I believe that he would say affirmative action does not solve discrimination problems in the workplace; it just hinders the problems. Everything Martin Luther King Jr. worked for and fought for is being destroyed by affirmative action.
Summary
As stated earlier, affirmative action was put into use during the 1960’s. The Civil Rights movement of 1964 emphasized the program. During that era, discrimination among minorities and women was extremely high and there were many barriers. The main goal of affirmative action was to give minorities and women an equal opportunity at employment. This was understandable in the 60’s and 70’s, but not today. Management’s main concern is the shareholders. You cannot please the shareholders if your company is not performing at its potential, the most qualified person must be hired regardless of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This should please everyone because it is what minorities’ want and what Corporate America deserves: equal treatment.

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