Affirmative Action: a Way to Stop Discrimination
America is the land of opportunity, but to be fully qualified for the status, it needs to be "color-blind, race-blind, and gender-blind." Affirmative Action began as a way to stop discrimination, but as new laws have been added to it, it has become reverse discrimination. Everyone has the opportunity to be a great addition to society. It is an immense injustice for people to say that someone of a different race or gender is not capable of achieving the same status in life as a white male. Through this paper, the concepts of affirmative action will be analyzed and discussed.
Affirmative Action began in 1965 when President Johnson signed the Executive Order 11246 in to law. The Executive Order 11246 "prevents Federal contractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." This is when the phrase affirmative action' was first used, because it "requires federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are not discriminated against based on race color, religion, sex, or national origin." When Affirmative Action was created, it only included minorities. In 1967, Johnson decided to expand the program to include women, because women have received some of the same discrimination as men in the workplace.
There were also earlier laws that were passed to ensure equal rights. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act are two examples of these laws, but they were a little behind considering the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution were passed much earlier. The Fourteenth amendment guarantees equal protection under the law and the Fifteenth amendment forbid racial discrimination in access to voting. Also, there was the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which was passed one hundred years earlier to ensure equal rights to all men.3
Secretary George Schultz and Arthur Fletcher, a top deputy, were the architects of some federal
Affirmative Action began in 1965 when President Johnson signed the Executive Order 11246 in to law. The Executive Order 11246 "prevents Federal contractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." This is when the phrase affirmative action' was first used, because it "requires federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are not discriminated against based on race color, religion, sex, or national origin." When Affirmative Action was created, it only included minorities. In 1967, Johnson decided to expand the program to include women, because women have received some of the same discrimination as men in the workplace.
There were also earlier laws that were passed to ensure equal rights. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act are two examples of these laws, but they were a little behind considering the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution were passed much earlier. The Fourteenth amendment guarantees equal protection under the law and the Fifteenth amendment forbid racial discrimination in access to voting. Also, there was the 1866 Civil Rights Act, which was passed one hundred years earlier to ensure equal rights to all men.3
Secretary George Schultz and Arthur Fletcher, a top deputy, were the architects of some federal