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Persistent Need for Affirmative Action Policies
Affirmative Action
The Historical Roots of Contemporary Affirmative Action Policies
President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925 in 1961 to mandate unbiased hiring practices in federally funded agencies and projects using "Affirmative Action," thus beginning a 50-year history of administrative, legislative, and court actions that repeatedly redefined the role of Affirmative Action policies in American society. Kennedy's executive order was codified in the Civil Rights Act signed into law in 1964. In 1965 President Johnson gave new meaning to Kennedy's interpretation of Affirmative Action by requiring federal agencies and contractors to take affirmative measures that ensured minorities were not excluded from employment opportunities. This order was eventually modified in 1967 to include gender.
In 1978 the concept of 'reverse discrimination' made national headlines when the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Affirmative Action policies in higher education could not be used to preferentially admit less qualified minorities at the expense of more qualified non-minorities, because it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Two years later the Court modified its stance on race quotas by deciding that limited quotas not based entirely on race were Constitutional. The Court's 1978 quota ruling was further weakened when it decided in 1987 to forcibly desegregate the Alabama Department of Public Safety using racial quotas, ruling that in this case the use of such quotas are appropriate since past discrimination is evident and no other means of rectifying the situation are available.
Over the next several...
Currently, the use of quotas as part of affirmative action programs or policies can be used only under narrowly defined circumstances and only when prior discrimination can be shown. A notable exception is in the realm of higher education, where the Court has recognized the added value a diverse student body adds to an education and academic discourse (Koppelman and Rebstock, 2007). In Grutter v. Bollinger the Supreme Court upheld the use of race in the admission process for University of Michigan Law School applicants because each is given "individualized consideration" and therefore no violation of equal protection occurs. By comparison, in Gratz v. Bollinger the Court found that equal protection was violated when undergraduate minority applicants to the University of Michigan were given additional points because it's impossible that individualized consideration can occur on such a large scale.
Racism and Affirmative Action Today
Affirmative Action programs and policies have been further weakened by state legislatures that have passed outright bans on such programs and policies over the past decade. Together with the Supreme Court rulings it seems as though Affirmative Action has been under attack nationwide for several decades, despite overwhelming evidence that employment, economic, and social segregation still exists along racial and gender lines in the United States (Denvir, 2011). With respect to gender equality, significant barriers still exist despite considerable progress (Orr, 2010).
Relying solely on historical Affirmative…
Reference
Koppelman, Andrew and Rebstock, Donald. (2007). On Affirmative Action and "truly individualized consideration" Northwestern University Law Review, 101, 1469-1481.
Denvir, Daniel. (2011). U.S. 2010 Census: The 10 most segregated cities in America. Accessed June, 2011 at http://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/u-s-2010-census-the-10-most-segregated-cities-in-america/
Orr, Bernard. (2010). Women still facing glass ceiling in 2010: Study. Reuters Life! Accessed June 2011 at http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/13/us-women-boardrooms-idUSTRE6BC49X20101213
Mail Foreign Service. (2008). U.S. House says sorry to black Americans for slavery -- but Senate stays silent in case it damages Obama. MailOnline. Accessed June, 2011 at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1039902/U-S-House-says-sorry-black-Americans-slavery -- Senate-stays-silent-case-damages-Obama.html
Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity The policies of affirmative action aiming at assisting the black Americans are of recent origin. The policies have sought its origin to varied sources like legal structure, executive instructions, and court rulings. It was during the last three decades that these policies were being developed and they have become debatable as well. (Legal History) During the last three decades of the nineteenth century, a large number of African-Americans
In addition to changes in admission policies at universities, new workshops in education are beginning to address this issue head on, with teaching participants being taught that American history and education are both "written from the perspective of whites and that laws and policies benefit whites while putting minorities at an immediate disadvantage." (Fernandez, 1) This has helped to redirect the perspective on Affirmative Action within the profession, where
With this ruling the Court upheld legality of affirmative action. In considering the reasoning behind the Court's upholding of the highly debated principle, the rationale was that to remedy past discrimination, a program that is race-based must be put into effect. Clearly, the Court was concerned with becoming intertwined in the daily administration of academic programs, and the same would have likely held true for the workplace. The Bakke case had
Unfortunately, at least according to the literature researched here, these are neither sufficiently addressed nor remedied, in most cases, by affirmative action alone at the post-secondary level. Works Cited Bowen, William G., and Bok, Derrick. The Shape of the River: Long-term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998. Comer, J. And Poussaint, Alvin. Black Child Care. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975. Constitution of the United
The continued subordination of blacks in the work place is due to persistent discrimination at all stages of the employment process, from recruitment to interview, job offer, and promotion. Studies conducted in the 1990's by the Urban Institute in Chicago, show significant levels of discrimination in the labor market against black and Hispanic job applicants. The discrimination that previous generations of blacks experienced in the labor market also harms
Both the liberal democratic and the business rationale need to be clearly articulated in a coherent communications strategy. 5) Statistical data. Detailed statistical data is needed to pinpoint which groups require positive action and to evaluate the impact of programs that incorporate targets or timetables for such groups in quantitative terms. 6) Contract compliance. The experience from the U.S.A. (and to a lesser extent Canada) suggests that contract compliance is an