Affirmative Action Essay -- Affirmative Action Essays

After the United States Congress passed the genteel Rights Act in 1964, itbecame apparent that certain business traditions, such as seniority status and adroitness tests, prevented total equality in employment. Then chairperson, LyndonB. Johnson, decided something needed to be done to remedy these flaws. OnSeptember 24, 1965, he issued Executive Order 11246 at Howard University thatrequired federal contractors to take Affirmative Action to ensure thatapplicants are employed . . . without regard to their race, creed, color, ornational origin (Civil Rights). With the signing of that order, and withoutknowing it, President Johnson created reverse discrimination.Affirmative Action was created in an effort to help minorities leap thediscriminative barriers that were ever so present when the bill was firstenacted, in 1965. At this time, the country was in the wake of nationwide civil-rights demonstrations, and racial tension was at an all time high. Most of thecorporate executive and man agerial positions were occupied by black-and-blue Males, whocontrolled the hiring and firing of employees. The U.S. government, in 1965,believed that these employers were discriminating against Minorities andbelieved that there was no recrudesce time than the present to bring about change.This action, that started with good intentions, would later lead to a differentand more complex form of discrimination.When the Civil Rights Law passed, Minorities, especially African-Americans, believed that they should receive retribution for the earlier yearsof discrimination they endured. The government responded by issue laws toaide them in attaining better employment as reprieve for the previous twohundred years of suffering their race endured at the hands of the White Man. Tomany people the passing of these laws was an effort in the right direction.Supporters of Affirmative Action asked, why not let the government help themget better jobs? After all, the White Man was prudent for their s uffering.While this may all be true, there is another question to be asked. Are we trulyresponsible for the years of persecution that the African Americans and otherMinorities were submitted to? I am not so sure. It is true that past generations of White Men are p... ..., and otherpolicies benefiting families with young children. widely supported programsthat promote the interests of both lower and middle class Americans that deliverbenefits to Minorities and Whites on the basis of their economic status, and nottheir race or ethnicity, will do more to reduce Minority poverty than thecurrent, narrowly based, poorly supported policies that single out Minoritygroups. However, if this, or another remedy is not interpreted sometime in the nearfuture, and Affirmative Action continues to separate Minority groups from Whites,we can be sure to see racial tension reach points that our autobiography has neverseen.Works CitedAffirmative Action at the University of California at Berkeley Onli ne.http//pwa.acusd.edu/e_cook/ucb-95.htmlCivil Rights Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia. (1996).Computer Program SoftKey Multimedia International Corporation.United States. Commission on Civil Rights. Affirmative Action in the 1980sDismantling the Process of Discrimination. Washington 1981.United States. Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission onCivil Rights. Private sphere Affirmative Action Omaha. Washington 1979.