Affirmative Action Essay -- Affirmative Action Essays

After the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, itbecame apparent that certain business traditions, such(prenominal) as seniority status andaptitude tests, prevented total equality in employment. Then President, LyndonB. Johnson, decided something needed to be done to remedy these flaws. On kinfolk 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, or matter 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 express 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 theembodied executive and ma nagerial positions were occupied by White 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 better time than the present to bring somewhat 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 eldof discrimination they endured. The government responded by passing laws toaide them in attaining better employment as reprieve for the previous twohundred years of paltry 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 non allow the government help themget better jobs? After all, the White Man was responsible for their suffer ing.While this may all be true, there is another capitulum 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 work force 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 taken sometime in the nearfuture, and Affirmative Action continues to separate Minority groups from Whites,we can be sure to claver racial tension reach points that our history has neverseen.Works CitedAffirmative Action at the University of California at Berkeley Online.htt p//pwa.acusd.edu/e_cook/ucb-95.htmlCivil Rights Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia. (1996).Computer Program SoftKey Multimedia global Corporation.United States. bang 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 Sector Affirmative Action Omaha. Washington 1979.