Affirmative Action, or Lack Thereof?

    In the modern society, the laws that were once created to give everyone the same opportunity have become the laws that prevent persons from having that opportunity. 

    Affirmative Action refers to the policies that take gender, race or ethnicity into account in order to promote equal opportunity.  President Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925 mandated “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.”  In the years, following its inception employers have followed it to a degree that in makes it impossible for some persons to gain employment.
    This was originally designed to bring equality to the work place, by insuring that an employer could not use any of the fore mentioned criteria to reject applicants.  At that time, it was one of the greatest achievements to society.  The sentiment that everyone is equal under the law was becoming a reality.     However, when Equal Opportunity Laws are factored into the equation, good intentions can be countermanded.
      Some opponents of affirmative action contend that affirmative action programs are discriminatory and that they, in many cases, result in the promotion of under-qualified individuals over higher qualified individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity, or gender.  This is due to the fact that employers feel the need to hire persons based upon their status as a minority, rather than the qualifications.  Often preferential treatment is granted to a person based upon their heritage or that of their family.  People who are born in families that are considered to be of minority stature, tend to be placed at the front of the proverbial employment line. 

    Equal Opportunity was meant to give everyone the same chance in life.  When equality is applied to employment, it brings with it a loss of equality.  The principle should be that rather than focus on employment alone, society should focus on the education of individuals.  Once everyone is on the same level then people can have the same chance.  Society should not try to bring individuals down to the level of the minority but bring everyone together on the same level.  Until then the majority will suffer a loss in employment to an under-qualified minority.

    Though it is not legal, the majority of employers do ask about the applicant’s nationality.  This is sometimes referred to as optional, but not answering the question will most likely result in not being employed.  This practice of surveying occurs in many walks of life.  Every business is constantly involved in demographic analysis of its employees.

    With the increase of minority employment and immigration, business have another method to reject candidates.  This comes from the section of a job application were it asks “what languages do you speak?”.  The wording of it may vary from place to place but the basis of the question is the same.  Often if a person does not know a secondary language, generally the primary language of the minority, the person will not be considered for employment.

The following is a true story of a potential employ.

‘ Joe is a Caucasian man in his mid twenties who has been seeking a job for months, he is also a college student.  One day, Joe went into a business to ask for an application.  The manager told him, in very broken English, “We no have application.”   Joe would have thought nothing about this, but as he started the car to leave, he noticed a teenage boy of foreign decent, go into the store.  Joe sat there for a moment and watched.  The boy then came out of the store with an application.  Joe was outraged.  He had just been racially profiled and discriminated against.  The worst part was that there is nothing that Joe can do about it.’

    This is a common occurrence in America today.  The problem is that no one reports it, because if someone like Joe had reported it, he most likely would have been accused of being racist in making such a claim.