Essay About Affirmative Action And Act States

Affirmative Action
Essay title: Affirmative Action
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 dont 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