Introduction
Affirmative Action began in 1965 when President Johnson signed the Executive Order 11246 in to law. The Executive Order prevents federal contractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The phrase "affirmative action" was first coined, when federal contractors were required to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants were not discriminated against in anyway. When affirmative action was created, it only included minorities. In 1967, Johnson decided to expand the program to include women because women were discriminated against much like minorities. In the 60's, 70's and 80's, affirmative action was a method used to stop discrimination, however in today's world it has become reverse discrimination in many cases. Everyone has the opportunity to contribute to society. The color of one's skin does not determine how capable he or she is at achieving greatness. This paper will analyze Affirmative Action and determine its appropriateness in today's society.
Literature Review
As stated above, affirmative action promotes reverse discrimination. Basically reverse discrimination is the condition under which there is preferential treatment of one group (minorities and women) over another group, rather than equal opportunity. Giving the job positions to less qualified candidates is favoritism; this harms those who should be obtaining the job position. A dedicated person who worked hard his or her whole life could lose a position to a minority that slipped into the position undeservingly. The whole purpose of affirmative action was to eliminate favoritism; instead it shifts favoritism to the other side. Favoritism of this sort does nothing but imply tha ...