Temporary: Lasting a short time. Would anyone argue that 40 years is not a short time? Myabe if it is relative to the life of the planet, but in terms of my lifetime, 40 years is not a short time. Affirmative Action, a supposedly temporary solution to a problem, has been around twice as long as I have and shows no signs of going away anytime soon. Something needs to be done.
Affirmative Action was based on good intentions, but took the wrong road. Discriminating to remove disrimination is a formula for failure. As Ghandi said, "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." It is the same in this situation.
I am a woman, and I am not racist. I am against affirmative action because if I get a job I want to know I earned it and I want everyone else to know too. Companies with affirmative action in place have been studied in terms of the psychological effects of gender-based and preferential hiring. The results were all the same; in companies actively employing affirmative action policies, women in management were voted as incompetent and undeserving of their position. Males and even other women in the workplace believed that the women hired through Affirmative Action were under qualified and needed help to get hired.
Not only this, Affirmative Action takes the US further away from our Constitutional rights not to be judged by race, sex, or ethnicity. Most people will agree racial profiling is an unfair way for police officers to decide which people to pull over. However, why is skin color okay to use as a basis for hiring/promoting. As I read somewhere, "either skin color matters or it doesn't." You can't say race matters in one situation and does not in another.
I think Affirmative Action creates tension as whites (particularly males) feel they are being discriminated AGAINST. Texas can attest to this. UT (I think it was the law school) was sued for letting in blacks over whites who had higher test scores and would have been admitted had the college not been accepting blacks just to meet a quota. Someday, Whites will start protesting against White discrimination. Maybe people will start making White-only scholarships, frats, and colleges. With affirmative action, there is always someone being discriminated against making equality not possible.
The only way to move to equality and a color-blind world is to start seeing people as people; not women, monorities, blacks, whites, males. People should be admitted and promoted based on merit and achievement. This way, people determine their own success or failure.
I think this is a great post and the only thing that could help is....
...the definition of affirmative action.
As Bill Clinton said, “the purpose of affirmative action is to give our nation a way to finally address the systematic exclusion of individuals of talent on the basis of gender, or race from opportunities to develop, perform, achieve, and contribute,” and to “open the doors of education, employment, and business development opportunities to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have experienced long-standing and persistent discrimination.”
"Affirmative action is an effort to develop systematic approach to open the doors of education, employment, and business development opportunities to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have experienced long-standing and persistent discrimination. "
found on: http://www.affirmativeaction.org//about.html
I am currently writing a paper on this subject so any input is much appreciated.
If you compare the time AA has been present with the time the ills it is intended to cure have been then it seems short.
I generally agree with you that it is evil; I just think it is a necessary evil. If you compare now and 40 years ago it seems to have at least helped to even the playing field somewhat. It should have had specific goals, and when those goals were reached Affirmative Action should disappear. IMHO we are not quite there. Hopefully soon.
A Fact is Always Better Than an Ideal.