Affirmative Action Supporters and Opponents

The Facts

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson issues an Executive Order 11246 requiring federal contractors to “take affirmative action” to ensure that they do not engage in discriminatory practices against workers because of race creed, color, or national origin. Two years later gender was added to the list. Affirmative action is the practice, usually by institutions or employment in government and business, of giving preference to racial minorities and women. The politics were originally developed to correct decades of discrimination and to give disadvantaged minorities a boost. The diversity of our current society as opposed to that of 50 years ago seems to indicate the programs have been a success. Now, many think the policies are no longer needed and that they led to more problems than they solve.

One particular kind of affirmative action is racial quotas, or deciding on a specific number or percentage of members of a given minority group that a company or institution had to accept. These racial quotas improved diversity to some degree, but was considered too crude by many people. Now affirmative action usually involves involves using race, gender, socioeconomic background, and/or sexual orientation status as a positive factor in hiring or admissions decisions.

Supporters

George E. Curry, a strong supporter of affirmative action (AA) knew it would happen when anti-affirmative action supporters would begin to poke fun at the decision made by the Supreme Court on the University of Michigan landmark case. A group of Conservative students at Roger William University in Rhode Island is offering a Whites-only scholarship valued at only $250 each. In addition to Whites-only scholarship, other attempts at humor include so-called affirmative action bake sales. At Southern Methodist University in Dallas, for example, Young Conservatives of Texas offered cookies at different prices. White males were charged $1 for each cookie, white women were charged 75 cents for each cookie, Hispanics were charged 50 cent and African Americans 25 cents. Similar bakes sale were held at Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Texas, Northwestern University, the University of Michigan and the University of Indiana. A flyer distributed by Columbia’s Conservation club asserted that republican” need to get preferential admissions treatment so they can receive equal representation on campus. Many were not amused.

Curry argued that diversity is desirable and will not always occur if left to chance. Part of the education process is learning to interact with other races and nationalities. Many students live very segregated lives up until the time they start college. Thus, the opinion of other races and nationalities are based on stereotypes. Interaction allows students to learn that persons of the opposite race are people too, more or less just like themselves.

Affirmative action draws people to areas of study and work they many never consider otherwise. Whether it is men being brought to into nursing, women brought into technology fields, or minorities brought into Ivy League schools, it is always desirable to bring people to areas of study or work that they may not have considered otherwise

Opponents

Ward Connerly is one the country’s leading opponents of affirmation action. He felt that President Johnson was correct in saying that the nation needed to address the fact the black people and women were not being allowed to fully participate in all phases of American public life. However, he felt that President Johnson never intended for affirmative action to evolve into a set of policies and practices that treat people differently on the bases of race. Ward felt it is appropriate to apply affirmative action in the sense that it is monitored, used aggressively for job promotions, and stomping out discrimination. Affirmative action leads to reverse discrimination. AA was designed to end discrimination and unfair treatment of employees/students based on color, but its effect does the opposite.

Connerly also felt that AA lowers standards of accountability needed to push employees and students to perform better. Example he used was, if a minority student can get into Harvard with a 3.2 grade point average, why should she push for a 4.0? Although some students or employees are self-motivated, most people need an extra push or incentive to do their best. Hard