Affirmative action

Résumé du document

In the dictionary, an affirmative Action is said to be an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups or women.

Affirmative action has been the subject of increasing debate and tension in American society.
It is an attempt by the United States to amend a long history of racial and sexual discrimination. But these days it seems to incite a nations internal division.

Opponents of affirmative action say that the battle for equal rights is over, and that requiring quotas that favor one group over another is unpatriotic.

The people that defend it say that providing advantages for minorities and women is fair considering the discrimination those groups tolerated for years.
The debate has been more emotional than intellectual and has generated more tension.

Affirmative action promotes equality in the workplace in such areas as hiring, training or promotion. It also promotes equal employment opportunities for people who are disadvantaged due to race, religion, colour, disability, national or ethnic origin, sex….

Affirmative action programs are designed to improve the lot of people who have suffered as a result of past discrimination.

Extraits

[...] Conclusion Affirmative action is not a cure all. It will not eliminate racial discrimination. Affirmative action programs can only ensure that everyone has a fair chance at what is available. Expanding opportunity for people of colour means expanding not only their access to existing jobs, education and housing, but also removing the obstacles that cause them from obtaining their goals. Questions: What do you think about quotas? What about black people in french television? Do you feel affirmative action in France? [...]

[...] Led by Martin Luther King the civil rights movement began to take shape and gain momentum. Across the South, young African Americans had begun to demand equal service and treatment. Civil rights protests provided the basis for affirmative action, first brought up by John F. Kennedy. In 1961 John F.Kennedy issued an executive order calling for Affirmative Action to promote equal opportunity for racial minorities, in hiring by federal contractors. This was the first official use of the term by the Federal Government. [...]

[...] Affirmative action policies serve as a corrective to such patterns of discrimination. They keep score on progress toward proportional representation and place the burden of proof on organizations to show why it is not possible to achieve it. Opponents of affirmative action want to see the "most qualified" people be hired, regardless of sex, race, age, etc. However, a person's experience should be taken into consideration during the hiring process and if certain groups are blocked from competing, when they are finally allowed to compete they may have every other qualification, but will lack what they were blocked at competing in the first place. [...]

[...] 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 the federal administrators. But among this destruction there was one positive aspect, the passage of Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. President Bill Clinton supports affirmative action, but he declared in 1995: against quotas. [...]

[...] Because race shouldn't be a factor. It shouldn't get you a position or lose you a position. It's almost an unsolvable dilemma. During the Civil Rights movement of 1960's, 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's minority and female population was 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. [...]