Affirmative Action Should Cont Essay Research Paper

Affirmative Action Should Cont Essay, Research Paper

Affirmative Action Should Continue!

Audiences: U.S. citizens who think that affirmative action should be suspended.

Affirmative action was established to practice equal employment opportunity. Moreover, in general, it is a catchall phrase that refers to laws, customs, and social policies. It intends to ease the discrimination between majorities and minorities by giving more opportunities for diverse demographic groups in various social organizations. Also, it refers to both voluntary and mandatory efforts practiced by federal, state, local governments, private employers, and schools to overcome discrimination and to urge equal opportunity into the educational system and working environments (Stephanopoulos and Edley 1995). On the other hand, it is criticized and discussed since it was established due to its has very broad influences in America society. It is not simply a legal issue, but also an issue that affects every American s way of life. However, it s just like other laws and regulations, none of them can please all kinds of people.

I am a supporter of the affirmative action. Some may say that this is because I am a student, and I need affirmative action to protect my opportunity of finding jobs in the future; unfortunately, they have the wrong thought. I am Taiwanese, and I will find my job in Taiwan where there is no regulation like affirmative action. Therefore, I am standing at a very objective position to discuss this topic with you. Of course, you can always keep you opinions in minds, but please open your minds to look at what I am going to tell you.

I. The historical changes of affirmative action

Affirmative action was first seen at 1961. President John F. Kennedy referred to his executive order that asked all federal contractors treat the applicants and their employees without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin (Pasour 1989). In 1964, affirmative action expanded its scope to prohibit employment discrimination by large employers, having over 15 employees, whether they have government contracts or not. In addition, from 1965 to 1967, affirmative action was expanded to require all government contractors and subcontractors to take it to expand job opportunities for women and minorities. Then, from 1970 to 1973, legislators evaluated and compared the affirmative action this program and status quo and made this program have more flexible goals and timetables for every organization to achieve it.

II. I-200 & Proposition 209 V.S. Affirmative Action

When I heard that Washington and California have passed Initiative 200 (I-200) and Proposition 209, which are regulations that against affirmative action, I think the residents of these two states may not clearly realize what the affirmative action really is. These regulations were passed because the supporters believe affirmative action has gone too far to protect minorities and women. Furthermore, the affirmative action causes reverse discriminations, preferential treatments, and privileges at not only work places but also schools. Proponents of I-200 and California s proposition 209 also argue that affirmative action has led American colleges and universities to use racial and ethnic as criteria to select a significant fraction of their entering classes. They also argue that because of affirmative action, companies may hire less qualified minorities or women instead of best-qualified white males.

I cannot agree! If those are true, why are most of the top level managers white males. Besides, why are women getting lesser pay than men have when taking charge of the same duties. According to the report of the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission in March 1995, a large proportion of minorities and women are locked into low-wage, low-prestige, and dead-end jobs (Murrell and Jones). The Glass Ceiling Commission reported that 97 percent of senior managers at the Fortune 1,000 corporations were white males (Morin and Warden A01). Also, in 1998, women were earning 75% of men s salaries base on the same kind of job, said by Jim Hose, a Human Resource Professor of Eastern Washington University. The general pattern of male-female relations continues in modern societies. An example like Home Depot Inc., it was suited by EEOC in 1997 because it hired women into low-level jobs, such as cashier, with little chance for advancement into sales or management positions (Lerner D3). The evidence shows that affirmative action is still needed due to society s unequal status. Most importantly, opponents argue that affirmative action causes reverse discrimination, and that is not true. A statistic shows that fewer than 100 out of 3000 discrimination cases filed actually involved reverse discrimination and only six out of 100 cases were true (Wilson 1995). When the U.S. government stars to practice affirmative action, it creates broader opportunities for all populations instead of only for white men. At this point, white males may have some impact on them, but the affirmative action is still needed when you consider society as a whole.

Another issue has been brought out by advocators of I-200 and Proposition 209, that affirmative action leads schools to select candidates unfairly. However, universities do not just look for racial and ethnic diversity when composing a class. Universities may reject s