More handpicked essays just for you.
Affirmative action laws in the united states
Affirmative action laws in the united states
Affirmative action laws in the united states
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
It is illegal to institute quotas and to fulfill them solely based on the race or gender of the applicant in any affirmative action programs. Employers and schools are required to set goals and time frames, for hiring or recruiting women and minorities to achieve racial diversity. Due to under representation of African Americans, women and minorities, affirmative action was created. It was created to ensure the inclusion of all qualified individuals and to prevent race and gender discrimination. An employer is not required to hire a person who lacks the qualifications needed to perform the job successfully in seeking to achieve its goals, or to choose one less qualified than the other based on race or gender. There are no legal penalties for employers as well as schools if goals are not met, as long as good faith and efforts to achieve them have been made. There is a misconception that some may think, that people of African descent, women and minorities receive preferences on behalf of these policies and that is not true. African Americans, women and minorities are all entitled to receive the opportunities to engage in higher education and occupations that were once denied to them.
"Affirmative action was first established in Executive Order 10925, which was signed by President John F. Kennedy on March 6, 1961 and required government contractors to "not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin" as well as to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin" (US Equal Employment Opportunity Committee). Lyndon B. Johnson reinstated af...
... middle of paper ...
... quotas is a necessity in order to include equal opportunity and racial diversity in employment and educational institutions.
Works Cited
Executive Order 10925 - Establishing The President's Committee On Equal Employment Opportunity". U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retrieved 5/2/2010.
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965. Volume II, entry 301, pp. 635-640. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1966.
Stolovitch, Dara Z. 2007. Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
United States Congress Joint Economic Committee. Invest in Women, Invest in America: A Comprehensive Review of Women in the U.S. Economy. Washington, DC, December 2010,p.80.
http://jec.senate.gov/public/?a=Files.Serve&File_id=9118a9ef-0771-4777-9c1f-8232fe70a45c
3.The term Affirmative action has played a huge role in the past one hundred years of American politics. It is simply defined as an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer. Civil Rights of American citizens have drastically changed because of Affirmative action. With almost anything in politics, there is a debate for and against Affirmative action. Supporters of this say that this helps encourage e...
Affirmative action, while a great idea in the beginning, is no longer needed to make up for the past discrimination of women and minorities. It does not get rid of discrimination, but rather creates it towards whites and men. Any form of discrimination is wrong, whether intentional or unintentional. Businesses and universities will set aside a separate pool for minorities and women so they don’t have to originally compete against the whole pool of applicants. A person’s qualifications and how they got to where they are should not be questioned because of affirmative action. The only reason some people are still questioned or considered undeserving is because affirmative action still takes place. Getting rid of affirmative action in universities and businesses will eliminate reverse discrimination and ensure that their qualifications, along with achievements, will not be questioned based on the skin color or gender of a
Barsh, Joanna and Yee, Lareina. Unlocking the Full Potential of Women in the US Economy. McKinsey & Company. Accessed April 4, 2014.
“Anyone interested in higher education should want to contemplate, on behalf of colleges and universities, students and faculty, alumni and paying parents, the fate of affirmative action(Chace, M William 20). The Oxford Dictionary states Affirmative Action is “an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination.” In 1961, John F. Kennedy signed an Executive Order calling for “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” This is now known today as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC). Affirmative action policies would later be forced upon businesses and have also been instituted at many universities where minorities are given preferred admissions over non-minorities. An Example of this would be at the University of Michigan where applicants who represented racial or ethnic minorities were given 20 points towards admission out of a 150 point system where only 100 points were needed to gain admission. Trying to put the 20 points in perspective, applicants with perfect SAT scores only received 12 points toward admission. This system was later struck down by the Supreme Court, but another similar policy was upheld at the University of Michigan Law School. With how diverse our society is currently compared to years ago, it seems to compliment that the policies have indeed worked. But now, the policies are questioned by many as whether or not they moral, constitutional, and/or...
Sacks, David, and Peter Thiel. "The Case Against Affirmative Action." Stanford Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2014.
Today there is considerable disagreement in the country over Affirmative Action with the American people. MSNBC reported a record low in support for Affirmative Action with 45% in support and 45% opposing (Muller, 2013). The affirmative action programs have afforded all genders and races, exempting white males, a sense of optimism and an avenue to get the opportunities they normally would not be eligible for. This advantage includes admission in colleges or hiring preferences with public and private jobs; although Affirmative Action has never required quotas the government has initiated a benefits program for the schools and companies that elect to be diversified. The advantages that are received by the minorities’ only take into account skin color, gender, disability, etc., are what is recognized as discriminatory factors. What is viewed as racism to the majority is that there ar...
Affirmative Action Affirmative action can be defined as action taken to compensate for past unfairness in the education of minorities. The current system of affirmative action allows universities to admit applicants from certain ethnic and minority groups with lower credentials. The main purpose of affirmative action is to produce a diverse campus population that is comparable to today's society. The use of race as a facto by which someone is admitted to college in the long run will compromise the quality of the university. Implicating affirmative action to solve the problem of diversity on today's campuses has lead to the creation of problems.
Despite there is a widespread support for affirmative action in education, the paper argues that affirmative action is merely a means of reverse discrimination against white and Asian students alike, creates a mismatch in colleges, and restricts students from reaching their potentials. In order to help the readers to thoroughly understand the issue, the paper first gives a brief history about affirmative action while defines the term itself and reverse discrimination. Using statistics, the argument then focuses on pointing out why affirmative action is a reverse discrimination. Yet, not only creating a racial preference against white and Asian students, the paper continues the controversy topic with the mismatch theory and how it affects students illustrating by examples. After addressing the mismatch is a product of affirmative action, the discussion that affirmative action restricts student from reaching their full potential takes place, putting an end to the paper.
Affirmative action is important especially in the work force. Before affirmative action, minorities and women felt, and seemed to be, discriminated against being chosen for the job. Affirmative action was to help with the "increasing of opportunities for those that were previously discriminated against"(Lemann, 145). Affirmative action was created to not only help Black-Amer...
US Department of Commerce. "Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being." March 2011. Whitehouse.gov. document. November 2013.
Tairo, Mario. "A Critical Look at Affirmative Action - Panorama - TakingITGlobal." A Critical Look at Affirmative Action - Panorama - TakingITGlobal. Taking It Global, 05 Apr. 2005. Web. 01 May 2014.
Imagine waking up tomorrow and reading in the local paper that the government was giving tax breaks to minorities in order to prevent discrimination. Congress insists that the deductions will “help level the playing field” in American society, claiming that diversity is necessary in creating an ideal nation, but is this attempt to prevent disparities and racism not an act of inequality in itself? By putting this policy into place, the government is giving advantages to minorities without showing the same generosity to Caucasians of the same economic backgrounds. Protests would be taking place around the country as citizens argue that the plan violates their Constitutional right to equality. Yet this is exactly the type of scenario seen in universities across the country. Colleges use race as a large factor in admissions in order to create “optimal diversity” among the students. However, this attempt at variety often comes at the expense of white and Asian students. For these reasons, affirmative action policies in college admissions should be eliminated in the United States.
...ns. The evidence supports the fact that if racial preferences are not used in admissions, the country will be withholding quality educations, both graduate and undergraduate, from large numbers of minority students. One of the staples of slavery when it is employed in this world is preventing those who are enslaved from becoming educated. We must work for the advancement of the human race as a whole, and this includes making sure that entire races of people are not left off prematurely on the road of education.
Is affirmative action in higher education needed? This question provokes a myriad of emotions. Is affirmative action antiquated and unneeded in 21st century America? Or are the racial boundaries of this country’s ancestors still in effect? America’s Declaration of Independence states, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” yet quotas, check marks, and plus factors give minority students advantages in the admission processes of the country’s universities and colleges (NARA).
Nacoste, Rupert W. (1987) Affirmative Action in American Politics: Strength or Weakness? Political Behavior, Vol. 9, No. 4, 291-304.