Should Affirmative Action Be Rescinded From Law?

In the mid 1950’s Dr. Martin Luther King started a crusade to gain equal rights for his race. Over several years he was able to convince President Kennedy to pass legislation on discrimination. Since then there has been a great debate on whether affirmative action should be rescinded from our laws. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act made discrimination illegal. Two authors, Ward Connerly and Paul Kivel, have taken different stands on this issue for and against. I will make a critique to see which author makes a stronger argument.

Mr. Connerly states that when the electorate in Washington state passed initiative 200 that it was the starting point to end affirmative action in the United States. He believes that this will end preferential treatment for minorities. He also states that his will end America’s responsibility to blacks for past wrongs.

A question was posed by Ward. Why did the voters chose to ignore all the pressure from outside groups and end the system of preference? His answer was simple, The Declaration of Independence which say’s “all men are created equal”, this is the premise of his argument. In his writings he says that people who believe in affirmative action fall on the belief that the good old boys will not allow blacks or women the opportunity to advance or even get a chance to compete in the workforce.

Connerly also believes that with preferential treatment comes the fall of individualism. This is the premise that makes us different from the rest of the world. He brings up the OJ verdict and how different blacks and whites view the judicial system and that black’s view welfare reform differently. He throws out statistics which claim that 65% of blacks support affirmative action and the same percentage of w...

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... a chance to compete.

Preferential hiring pools were another argument. Black people should be considered first when going against other candidates even if their testing scores were slightly lower than their white counterparts.

He asks a question. Should whites pay for past discrimination? His answer is no because in the big scheme of things whites still make more. They are predominantly holders of the highest paying jobs and that blacks are still underrepresented in all areas of employment.

Two other aspects are white men are still favored over white women in the same social group. Men make more than women in comparable work and are more likely to get faster advancement. The second white men are not created equal. Business relies on the insecurities of white men telling them that they are the only one capable of performing the tasks.