Affirmative Action
For the past several years the argument over affirmative action has been a highly debated topic. The issue at hand is whether or not affirmative action is reverse discrimination or not. Affirmative action by definition "means taking positive steps to end discrimination, to prevent its recurrence, and to create new opportunities that were previously denied to qualified women and people of color," (Work & Family). The reason that affirmative action is so controversial is because Americans can't decide what they want. "Poll after poll concludes that Americans firmly support "'affirmative action'" to create opportunities for women and people of color, while they vigorously oppose "quotas'" and "'preferences'" for unqualified candidates," (Work & Family). Which is odd considering that the same "affirmative action" that people support does in fact, in some cases, put unqualified personnel in undeserving positions. For those people who believe affirmative action works they generally are only focusing on the diversity affirmative action has brought to jobs. Their arguments consist of wanting to see more ethnic and gender diversity in jobs that are usually being worked by white males. To many of these people quality
In the end, the Supreme Court ruled that the affirmative action plan of the University was constitutional; however, their use of a quota was not constitutional. Therefore it was that the University had to do away with. While the case was before the courts Bakke was allowed to stay in school, and by the time that the case was done Bakke had in fact completed his schooling, thus eliminating his original complaint (Law and Politics). Even though there is significant support for affirmative action it still has a large, if not larger, group of people who do not support it. These people believe that many under qualified, undeserving people are being hired ahead of qualified people just because of their individual race or gender. Consequently the strongest argument this group of people present is that many qualified non-minority/non-female applicants are being passed over for opportunities in favor of the minority and female applicants. This is not only unfair to the person being passed over, but it is also unfair to the company, the consumer, and the people who have to work around this unqualified person. It is unfair to the more qualified person because they had probably put more time and effort into what they were trying to accomplish. It is unfair to the company because the unqualified person will take more time to train which in a big company could cost a lot of money. Then it is unfair to the consumer because they will receive an inferior product brought on by a lack of knowledge. Finally, it is unfair to the co-workers of this unqualified person. With this unqualified co-worker the others will have to work harder to pick up his or her slack, and fix any mistakes the person might make. As in the case of Paul Johnson versus Diane Joyce. Both had comparable skills, but even though Paul Johnson's oral interview was scored higher than Diane Joyce it was her that was selected for the job. "The Court upheld the county's use of Ms. Joyce's
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Approximate Word count = 1315
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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