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The roots of affirmative action can be traced back to the passage of the 1964
Civil Rights Act where legislation redefined public and private behavior. The
act states that to discriminate in private is legal, but anything regarding
business or public discrimination is illegal (Affirmative 13). There are two
instances when opposing affirmative action might seem the wrong thing to do.
Even these two cases don't justify the use of affirmative action. First is the
nobility of the cause to help others. Second, affirmative action was a great
starter for equality in the work place. The most promanite variable in deciding
affirmative action as right or wrong, is whether or not society is going to
treat people as groups or individuals. Affirmative action is a question of
morals.
The simplicity to form two morals that are both correct but conflicting
is the reason for the division of our nation on affirmative action. Affirmative
action is very noble when looking at who benefits from the outcome. Take a
closer look at affirmative action. The people that are involved and the damage
it takes on our society surfaces many doubts. Taking a closer look also stirs up
a question of nobility that needs to be answered before making a decision on
affirmative action. Does affirmative action simply change who is discriminated
against and makes it legal for the new discriminators? Coming from my point of
view, the view of a white male, this is a serious question. One example of this
came to my attention from Dave Shiflett who once worked at Rocky Mountain News
wrote Rocky Mountain Hire. In this article he tells about a new hiring strategy
used at the Denver news paper Rocky Mountain News. A memo was sent out stating,
The job reviews of supervisors and others involved in hiring should address race
and sex.
Each review should have a hiring goal of at least half of our hires
being women and at least half non-white (Shiflett 45). Lets put this strategy to
work. We have ten positions to fill, these positions can be filled following the
above guidelines by hiring five black women. It can also be met by hiring five
white women and five non-white men. Obviously to meet this goal successfully
would mean to not hire a white male (Shiflett 45). I strongly disagree with my
white fore fathers and society today who both address race and sex when hiring.
Using a persons skin color in hiring is discrimination no matter how society
looks at it. At St. Bonaventure University the potential for reverse
discrimination became a reality. In May 1994, 22 faculty members were fired, all
were male. The president of the university was very blunt about his motive, to
protect the small number of women on the university staff (Magner 18).
This was
purely a discussion based on gender not qualification. No matter how efficient
these men were some were fired for not being part of a certain minority. Gary A.
Abraham, who was fired as a tenured associate professor stated, It seems
ludicrous that the university can rectify its failure to engage in affirmative
action on the backs of its male faculty. Twelve of the men took their complaints
to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The commission sided with the
men and are even planning to bring the university up on charges themselves (Magner
18). Giving an employer the power to discriminate only towards minorities is
unfair and unethical. Now the question is who will the government protect?
Society can not consider its self fair when we are still forming decisions based
upon gender or race. It is not noble to protect the jobs of women at Bonaventure
University simply there are not enough women on the roster. We should protect
the jobs of the experienced. We can not form a new society from affirmative
action and believe the rights of all United States citizens will be upheld. The
whole idea behind affirmative action is to right the wrongs of the past.
Well,
what about the individuals that were not even born when this atrocity of
discrimination was going on. Society should not punish the youth for the crimes
of their white male forefathers. Thomas Sowell gave an interesting story in his
article Free Markets vs. Discrimination about Albert Greuner. He had graduated
from Pensacola Naval photography school and was refused a job he was more than
qualified for. The reason Albert was denied the position was based on the
conduct of the other cadets graduating from Pensacola(Sowell 69). These are the
battles that need to be fought. Stop employers from hiring in a discriminatory
fashion Not to just favor the group that has been discriminated against in the
past. Not only does it affect white males, but the recipients of affirmative
action suffer from negative side effects also. There is an angry backlash that
women and minorities feel from affirmative action.
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