FREE ESSAY ON THE FAILURES OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

THE FAILURES OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Once upon a time, there were two people who went to an interview for only one job position
at the same company. The first person attended a prestigious and highly academic
university, had years of work experience in the field and, in the mind of the employer,
had the potential to make a positive impact on the company's performance. The second
person was just starting out in the field and seemed to lack the ambition that was
visible in his opponent. "Who was chosen for the job?" you ask. Well, if the story took
place before 1964, the answer would be obvious. However, with the somewhat recent
adoption of the social policy known as affirmative action, the answer becomes unclear. 
After the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964,it became apparent
that certain business traditions, such as seniority status and aptitude tests, prevented
total equality in employment. Then President, Lyndon B. Johnson, decided something needed
to be done to remedy these flaws. On September 24, 1965, he issued Executive Order #11246
at Howard University that required federal contractors "to take affirmative action to
ensure that applicants are employed . . . without regard to their race, creed, color, or
national origin (Civil Rights)." When Lyndon Banes Johnson signed that order, he enacted
one of the most discriminating pieces of legislature since the Jim Crow Laws were passed.

Affirmative action was created in an effort to help minorities leap the discriminative
barriers that were ever so present when the bill was first enacted, in 1965. At this
time, the country was in the wake of nationwide civil-rights demonstrations, and racial
tension was at its peak. Most of the corporate executive and managerial positions were
occupied by white males, who controlled the hiring and firing of employees. The U.S.
government, in 1965, believed that these employers were discriminating against minorities
and believed that there was no better time than the present to bring about change. 
When the Civil Rights Law passed, minorities, especially African-Americans, believed that
they should receive retribution for the years of discrimination they endured. The
government responded by passing laws to aide them in attaining better employment as
reprieve for the previous two hundred years of suffering their race endured at the hands
of the white man. To many, this made sense. Supporters of affirmative action asked, "why
not let the government help them get better jobs?" After all, the white man was
responsible for their suffering. While this may all be true, there is another question to
be asked. Are we truly responsible for the years of persecution that the African
Americans were submitted to?
The answer to the question is yes and no. It is true that the white man is partly
responsible for the suppression of the African- American race. However, the individual
white male is not. It is just as unfair and suppressive to hold many white males
responsible for past persecution now as it was to discriminate against many
African-Americans in the generations before. Why should an honest, hard-working, open
minded, white male be suppressed, today, for past injustice? Affirmative action accepts
and condones the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Do two wrongs make a
right? I think mother taught us better than that. 
Affirmative action supporters make one large assumption when defending the policy. They
assume that minority groups want help. This, however, may not always be the case. My
experience with minorities has led me to believe that they fought to attain equality, not
special treatment. To them, the acceptance of special treatment is an admittance of
inferiority. They ask, "Why can't I become successful on my own? Why do I need laws to
help me get a job?" These African Americans want to be treated as equals, not as
incompetents. 
In a statement released in 1981 by the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Jack P.
Hartog, who directed the project, said: Only if discrimination were nothing more than the
misguided acts of a few prejudiced individuals would affirmative action plans be "reverse
discrimination." Only if today's society were operating fairly toward minorities and
women would measures that take race, sex, and national origin into account be
"preferential treatment." Only if discrimination were securely placed in a well-distant
past would affirmative action be an unneeded and drastic remedy.
What the commission failed to realize was that there are thousands of white males who are
not discriminating yet are being punished because of those who do. The Northern Natural
Gas Company of Omaha, Nebraska, was forced by the government to release sixty-five white
male workers to make room for minority employees in 1977 (Nebraska Advisory Committee
40). Five major Omaha corporations reported that the number of white managers fell 25% in
1969 due to restrictions put on them when affirmative action was adopted (Nebraska
Advisory Committee 27). You ask, "What did these white males do to bring about their
termination?" The only crime that they were guilty of was being white. This hardly seems
fair to punish so many innocent men for the crimes of a relative few. 
But the injustice toward the white male doesn't end there. After the white male has been
fired, he has to go out and find a new job to support his family that depended on the
company to provide health care and a retirement plan in return for years of hard work.
Now, because of affirmative action, this white male, and the thousands like him, require
more skills to get the same job that a lesser qualified black man needs. This is, for all
intents and purposes, discrimination, and it is a law that our government strictly
enforces. 
Affirmative action is not only unfair for the working man, it is extremely discriminatory
toward the executive, as well. The average business executive has one goal in mind, and
that is to maximize profits. To reach his goal, this executive would naturally hire the
most competent man or woman for the job, whether they be black or white or any other
race. Why would a business man intentionally cause his business to lose money by hiring a
poorly qualified worker? Most wouldn't. With this in mind, it seems unnecessary to employ
any policy that would cause him to do otherwise. But, that is exactly what affirmative
action does. It forces an employer, who needs to meet a quota established by the
government, to hire the minority, no matter who is more qualified. 
Another way that affirmative action deducts from a company's profits is by forcing them
to create jobs for minorities. This occurs when a company does not meet its quota with
existing employees and has to find places to put minorities. These jobs are often
unnecessary, and force a company to pay for workers that they do not need.
Now, don't get the impression that affirmative action is only present in the work place.
It is also very powerful in education. Just as a white male employee needs more
credentials to get a job than his minority opponent, a white male student needs more or
better skills to get accepted at a prestigious university than a minority student. There
are complete sections on college applications dedicated to race and ethnic background.
Colleges must now have a completely diverse student body, even if that means some, more
qualified students, must be turned away.
A perfect example of this can be found at the University of California at Berkeley. A
1995 report released by the university said that 9.7% of all accepted applicants were
African American. Only 0.8% of these African American students were accepted by academic
criteria alone. 36.8% of the accepted applicants were white. Of these accepted white
students, 47.9% were accepted on academic criteria alone. That means that approximately
sixty times more African Americans students were accepted due to non-academic influences
than white students. It seems hard to believe that affirmative action wasn't one these
outside influences.
Another interesting fact included in the 1995 report said that the average grade point
average for a rejected white student was 3.66 with an average SAT score of 1142. The
average grade point average for an accepted African American student was 3.66 with a 1030
average SAT score. These stunning facts shows just how many competent, if not gifted
students fall between the cracks as a direct result of affirmative action (Affirmative
action).
Well, I believe that the problem has been identified; affirmative action is becoming a
form of reverse discrimination. It is now time for the doctor to prescribe a potential
remedy. Society should work towards broad based economic policies like public investment,
national health reform, an enlarged income tax credit, child support assurance, and other
policies benefiting families with young children. Widely supported programs that promote
the interests of both lower and middle class Americans that deliver benefits to
minorities and whites on the basis of their economic status, and not their race or
ethnicity, will do more to reduce minority poverty than the current, narrowly based,
poorly supported policies that single out minority groups. However, if this, or another
remedy is not taken sometime in the near future, and affirmative action continues to
separate minority groups from whites, we can be sure to see racial tension reach points
that our history has never seen.
Bibliography
Works Cited "Affirmative Action at the University of California at Berkeley" Online.
October 28, 1996. http://pwa.acusd.edu/~e_cook/ucb-95.html "Civil Rights" Compton's
Interactive Encyclopedia. (1996). [Computer Program] SoftKey Multimedia International
Corporation. United States. Commission on Civil Rights. Affirmative Action in the 1980's:
Dismantling the Process of Discrimination. Washington: 1981. United States. Nebraska
Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Private Sector Affirmative
Action: Omaha. Washington: 1979.