The Effects of Affirmative Action

The Effects of Affirmative Action

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: " We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." Dr. King stated this in his famous " I have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C. in 1963

Racial discrimination has long been a problem in social history. The discrimination of ethnic minorities has been a controversial issue, existent in society, and workplaces for many years. The implementation of ethnic monitoring and positive discrimination in employment has increased the number of minority employees and gone a long way to mend the bridge of inequality that has burdened society for a long time.

The term affirmative action was first used by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 in an Executive Order which established the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. In the Executive Order, federal contractors were instructed to take "affirmative action to ensure that applicants are equally treated without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." On June 4, 1965, in a speech he gave at Howard University, President Johnson stated that civil rights alone are not enough to remedy discrimination. President Johnson issued an Executive Order that same year which required government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment. The Executive Order was amended in 1967 to also include discrimination on the basis of gender.

Another method introduced to try and counter the racial inequality in employment is that of Affirmative Action. Affirmative action calls for minorities and women to be given special consideration in employment, education and contracting decisions, to increase their number in the workplace. Affirmative action is a controversial issue that has been debated by many. The efforts of affirmative action are no different from the policies that created the disadvantages in the first place, although the idea is trying to redress the balance of inequality, I feel it is causing more harm than good in the work place. It is undemocratic to give one class of citizen's advantages at the expense of other