Affirmative Action: Will It Every Work Right?
Author: G. E. S. Boley, Jr.
For Business Ethics
Taught by: Dr. J. Daiz
Outline
I. Introduction
History
II. Ethical Issues
Kennedy’s Arguments
Positive debates
Sher’s Argument
Negative debates
III. Summary
Footnotes
I. Introduction
From the time of it’s original conception to the actual passing of the act or civil rights addendum. Affirmative Action has and continues to be an issue taking us into the 21st century. This paper is written with no bias to give an fair shake to the Affirmative action policies that have now taking hold of our society in the late Nineteen HundreRAB. I will be discussing ethical arguments by economist Sher and Kennedy. I will discuss the positive and negative aspects and give a summary of these issues.
History
The history of affirmative action has its roots in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (1) and stems from the United States Supreme Court Case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (2).
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order #11246 at Howard University that required federal contractors to undertake affirmative action to increase the nuraber of minorities that they employ. He wanted to ensure that minorities are recruited to have real opportunities to be hared and then eventually get a promotion.
In 1969, the Department of Labor exposed widespread racial discrimination of the Construction Department so President Richard M. Nixon decided to incorporate a system of "goals and timetables" to evaluate federal construction companies according to affirmative action. This idea of "goals and timetables" provided guidelines for companies to follow and comply with affirmative action regulations.
During the presidency of Gerald R. Ford, he extended affirmative action to people with disabilities (3) and Vietnam veteran’s (4) but there are no goals or timetables for these two groups. This type of affirmative action required recruitment efforts, accessibility, accommodation and reviews of physical and mental job qualifications.
President Jimmy Carter consolidated all federal agencies that are required by law to follow the affirmative action play into the Department of Labor. Before Carter did this, each agency-handled affirmative action in its own individual way, some are not as consistent as other agencies Are. He created the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFCCP) in 1978 to ensure compliance with the affirmative action policies.
Affirmative action began to go downhill when Ronald Reagan and later George Bush came into office. Affirmative action lost some gains it had made and was more or less ignored by the Republicans in the White House and in Congress. Affirmative action was silently being "killed" by our federal administrators. But among this destruction there was one positive aspect, the passage of Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (5).
Finally to the Presidency of Bill Clinton. The Republicans are attempting to scare people into changing their party lines by misusing affirmative action. They are saying that affirmative action is nothing more than a quota or reverse discrimination (6).
As you can see, there have been many additions to the policy of affirmative action. People from the Vietnam War, people with disabilities, and minority groups have made gains in the workforce but more research neeRAB to be conducted as to the qualifications of all of these people to make sure that race is not a determining factor in the giving and receiving of jobs. The best person for the job, no matter what race, should be given the job.
II. Ethical Issues
Kennedy:
All Knowledge is ideological and as such, reflects the power struggle existing in this society. For minority communities to fairly compete for wealth and power they must participate in the production of knowledge and ideology. A lager nuraber of intellects in the institutions that produce ideologies will most likely lead to an increase in the nuraber of ideas beneficial to minorities. On views and values are most likely to be influenced by the social and historical experience of that particular group in which they belong to. Due to the statement that was just made these intellectuals of these minority groups will focus on ideas that strictly effect them and their community around them.
Positive Aspects
Affirmative action was implemented with the idea and hope that America would finally become truly equal. The tension of the 1960s civil rights movement had made it very clear, that the nation minority and female population is not receiving equal social and economic opportunity. The implementation of affirmative action was America's first honest attempt at solving a problem, it had previously chose to ignore.
Affirmative action has had its greatest amount of success in city, state, and government jobs. Since the 1960s the area of law enforcement witnessed the greatest increase in minority applicants, and in jobs offered to minorities. This should be viewed as an extremely positive thing, because prior to affirmative action these jobs are almost completely closed off to minorities and woman. The influx has been greatest in the area of government, state and city, because this type of work is easier for affirmative action to watch over and regulate. Affirmative action has experienced considerably less success in integration in big business. This is do to the fact that big business has been more resistant to affirmative action and harder to regulate. However, this is an area that most supporters of affirmative action expect to see a change.
Sher’s Argument
Any affirmative action policy that helps a group as opposed to the individual will and should be rejected. Racial and sexual groups are not like persons to fall under the principles of distributive justice. Even if groups could fall under the principles of distributive justice, the special treatment of non-deprived merabers of this group or class can not be justified. Justice requires an equal distribution of benefits and burdens, except when the inequalities can be justified by reason of merit or need.
Negative Aspects
Affirmative Action uses reverse discrimination to solve the problem of discrimination. In that, it promotes the hiring of less skilled workers: the employers have to choose from the best available employee from the minorities, instead of having the possibility to choose simply the best available employee.
This bothers employers as well as employees who do not qualify for Affirmative Action; the employers feel they ended up with a lesser quality worker. Here we come to yet another disadvantage of Affirmative Action. Every employee from a minority that benefits from Affirmative Action bears a mark of "not being the best pick, but only the best pick from a limited group", even if the person was selected for being the best available on the complete job market. The bypassed employees feel tricked by the government or the minority. The last could fare up racism among the bypassed group, while Affirmative Action was introduced to decrease racism.
Affirmative Action does provide a person from certain minorities with a job they would not have gotten otherwise (that is what Affirmative Action was introduced for). But if, after reading all the above, you think of the quality of this job, in a surroundings hostile towarRAB the minority the employee is from, one could seriously doubt the fact whether this employee is happy with this job. It is better than no job, but that is about it.
This brings me to the last negative aspect of Affirmative Action, and that is, Affirmative Action. In a situation like this, nothing, no matter what kind of regulation you think of, will change unless the people (employers in this case) are willing to cooperate. I find it sad that in America, the "Melting-pot" of cultures from all over the world, the "Most Powerful Nation on Earth", is so weak inside. As long as people are not willing to live with each other and respect each other, the "Melting-pot" will keep on boiling.
III. Summary
Despite all of the negative aspects of Affirmative Action I mentioned above (without doubt there are many, many more), I feel that Affirmative Action is necessary. Until a better solution is found or until the people of America finally stop quarreling about race, color and culture and establish peace in the country itself, Affirmative Action should stay, being the best solution available: a compromise.
There are many people who don't see affirmative action as a positive thing and would like to see it eliminated. In my opinion these people need to realize that thirty years of affirmative action isn't a long enough time to solve a major societal problem. Affirmative action is making steady strides in helping the problem of racial inequality in America. Affirmative action is something we should all support, until better and more effective plans are proposed.
FOOTNOTES
1.) Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations and by employers, unions, and voting registrars. It also barred discriminatory poll taxes that Afro-Americans was required to pay in order to vote.
2.) It states that "separate but equal" facilities on the basis of race were unconstitutionally discriminatory.
3.) It is incorporated through the Rehabilitation Act of 1974.
4.) It is incorporated through the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Act of 1974.
5.) It prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in places of public accommodations.
6.) Reverse discrimination is discrimination against a white male or female instead of a black male or female.
Author: G. E. S. Boley, Jr.
For Business Ethics
Taught by: Dr. J. Daiz
Outline
I. Introduction
History
II. Ethical Issues
Kennedy’s Arguments
Positive debates
Sher’s Argument
Negative debates
III. Summary
Footnotes
I. Introduction
From the time of it’s original conception to the actual passing of the act or civil rights addendum. Affirmative Action has and continues to be an issue taking us into the 21st century. This paper is written with no bias to give an fair shake to the Affirmative action policies that have now taking hold of our society in the late Nineteen HundreRAB. I will be discussing ethical arguments by economist Sher and Kennedy. I will discuss the positive and negative aspects and give a summary of these issues.
History
The history of affirmative action has its roots in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (1) and stems from the United States Supreme Court Case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (2).
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order #11246 at Howard University that required federal contractors to undertake affirmative action to increase the nuraber of minorities that they employ. He wanted to ensure that minorities are recruited to have real opportunities to be hared and then eventually get a promotion.
In 1969, the Department of Labor exposed widespread racial discrimination of the Construction Department so President Richard M. Nixon decided to incorporate a system of "goals and timetables" to evaluate federal construction companies according to affirmative action. This idea of "goals and timetables" provided guidelines for companies to follow and comply with affirmative action regulations.
During the presidency of Gerald R. Ford, he extended affirmative action to people with disabilities (3) and Vietnam veteran’s (4) but there are no goals or timetables for these two groups. This type of affirmative action required recruitment efforts, accessibility, accommodation and reviews of physical and mental job qualifications.
President Jimmy Carter consolidated all federal agencies that are required by law to follow the affirmative action play into the Department of Labor. Before Carter did this, each agency-handled affirmative action in its own individual way, some are not as consistent as other agencies Are. He created the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFCCP) in 1978 to ensure compliance with the affirmative action policies.
Affirmative action began to go downhill when Ronald Reagan and later George Bush came into office. Affirmative action lost some gains it had made and was more or less ignored by the Republicans in the White House and in Congress. Affirmative action was silently being "killed" by our federal administrators. But among this destruction there was one positive aspect, the passage of Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (5).
Finally to the Presidency of Bill Clinton. The Republicans are attempting to scare people into changing their party lines by misusing affirmative action. They are saying that affirmative action is nothing more than a quota or reverse discrimination (6).
As you can see, there have been many additions to the policy of affirmative action. People from the Vietnam War, people with disabilities, and minority groups have made gains in the workforce but more research neeRAB to be conducted as to the qualifications of all of these people to make sure that race is not a determining factor in the giving and receiving of jobs. The best person for the job, no matter what race, should be given the job.
II. Ethical Issues
Kennedy:
All Knowledge is ideological and as such, reflects the power struggle existing in this society. For minority communities to fairly compete for wealth and power they must participate in the production of knowledge and ideology. A lager nuraber of intellects in the institutions that produce ideologies will most likely lead to an increase in the nuraber of ideas beneficial to minorities. On views and values are most likely to be influenced by the social and historical experience of that particular group in which they belong to. Due to the statement that was just made these intellectuals of these minority groups will focus on ideas that strictly effect them and their community around them.
Positive Aspects
Affirmative action was implemented with the idea and hope that America would finally become truly equal. The tension of the 1960s civil rights movement had made it very clear, that the nation minority and female population is not receiving equal social and economic opportunity. The implementation of affirmative action was America's first honest attempt at solving a problem, it had previously chose to ignore.
Affirmative action has had its greatest amount of success in city, state, and government jobs. Since the 1960s the area of law enforcement witnessed the greatest increase in minority applicants, and in jobs offered to minorities. This should be viewed as an extremely positive thing, because prior to affirmative action these jobs are almost completely closed off to minorities and woman. The influx has been greatest in the area of government, state and city, because this type of work is easier for affirmative action to watch over and regulate. Affirmative action has experienced considerably less success in integration in big business. This is do to the fact that big business has been more resistant to affirmative action and harder to regulate. However, this is an area that most supporters of affirmative action expect to see a change.
Sher’s Argument
Any affirmative action policy that helps a group as opposed to the individual will and should be rejected. Racial and sexual groups are not like persons to fall under the principles of distributive justice. Even if groups could fall under the principles of distributive justice, the special treatment of non-deprived merabers of this group or class can not be justified. Justice requires an equal distribution of benefits and burdens, except when the inequalities can be justified by reason of merit or need.
Negative Aspects
Affirmative Action uses reverse discrimination to solve the problem of discrimination. In that, it promotes the hiring of less skilled workers: the employers have to choose from the best available employee from the minorities, instead of having the possibility to choose simply the best available employee.
This bothers employers as well as employees who do not qualify for Affirmative Action; the employers feel they ended up with a lesser quality worker. Here we come to yet another disadvantage of Affirmative Action. Every employee from a minority that benefits from Affirmative Action bears a mark of "not being the best pick, but only the best pick from a limited group", even if the person was selected for being the best available on the complete job market. The bypassed employees feel tricked by the government or the minority. The last could fare up racism among the bypassed group, while Affirmative Action was introduced to decrease racism.
Affirmative Action does provide a person from certain minorities with a job they would not have gotten otherwise (that is what Affirmative Action was introduced for). But if, after reading all the above, you think of the quality of this job, in a surroundings hostile towarRAB the minority the employee is from, one could seriously doubt the fact whether this employee is happy with this job. It is better than no job, but that is about it.
This brings me to the last negative aspect of Affirmative Action, and that is, Affirmative Action. In a situation like this, nothing, no matter what kind of regulation you think of, will change unless the people (employers in this case) are willing to cooperate. I find it sad that in America, the "Melting-pot" of cultures from all over the world, the "Most Powerful Nation on Earth", is so weak inside. As long as people are not willing to live with each other and respect each other, the "Melting-pot" will keep on boiling.
III. Summary
Despite all of the negative aspects of Affirmative Action I mentioned above (without doubt there are many, many more), I feel that Affirmative Action is necessary. Until a better solution is found or until the people of America finally stop quarreling about race, color and culture and establish peace in the country itself, Affirmative Action should stay, being the best solution available: a compromise.
There are many people who don't see affirmative action as a positive thing and would like to see it eliminated. In my opinion these people need to realize that thirty years of affirmative action isn't a long enough time to solve a major societal problem. Affirmative action is making steady strides in helping the problem of racial inequality in America. Affirmative action is something we should all support, until better and more effective plans are proposed.
FOOTNOTES
1.) Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations and by employers, unions, and voting registrars. It also barred discriminatory poll taxes that Afro-Americans was required to pay in order to vote.
2.) It states that "separate but equal" facilities on the basis of race were unconstitutionally discriminatory.
3.) It is incorporated through the Rehabilitation Act of 1974.
4.) It is incorporated through the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Act of 1974.
5.) It prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in places of public accommodations.
6.) Reverse discrimination is discrimination against a white male or female instead of a black male or female.