Affirmative Action Laws

Affirmative Action Laws

Introduction

Affirmative action has, in various forms, existed for over thirty-three years, beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although the reasons for its inception vary drastically with current reasons for its continuance, affirmative action has managed to survive. However, people are now beginning to question this system. Affirmative action has served its purpose, but its usefulness has dissipated; it is time for a change.

To understand what is presently wrong with affirmative action, one needs to study why affirmative action's fathers created the racial preferencee system. Affirmative action came into being during Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. When Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Act introduced affirmative action along with its enforcing commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In 1964, blacks were just emerging from the chains of segregation left from many years of slavery. Discrimination occurred rampantly, and where discrimination appeared to be the problem, affirmative action was the solution.

As Congress debated the Civil Rights Bill of 1964, concerns arose that Title VII of the pending bill-the section dealing with discrimination in the workplace-could lead to the widespread practice of reverse discrimination. Stalwart liberal senators such as Hubert Humphrey, Joseph Clark, and Clifford Case all adamantly and unequivocally denied that the bill could be interpreted to permit racial preference. Humphrey and other supporters inserted an amendment to the bill specifically stating that the purpose of the bill was to rectify cases of intentional discrimination and they did not intend to impose sanctions because a workplace contained few blacks (Long 10). In addition, Humphrey vowed to "start eating the pages [of the Civil Rights Bill] one after another" if anyone could discover language in it "which provides that an employer will have to hire on the basis of percentage or quota" (Long 18). Fourteen years later the Supreme Court would reign in the zealous enforcement of affirmative action and declare quotas unconstitutional.

Officially, the term affirmative action describes proactive steps taken by the government or the private sector to create a more diverse work force or campus. However, the once noble idea of affirmative action has snowballed, and has created an avalanche of backlash that is sure to bury the affirmative action ideal.

Discussion

According to Robert Emmet Long, "Affirmative action was introduced to lend assistance to blacks and did not apply to other ethnic groups or women" (7). Also clarifying the initial approach to affirmative action is Thomas Sowell: "In the beginning, affirmative action meant nothing more than special outreach to black high school students to get them to apply to colleges where they might not have felt welcome before. After that, they would be judged by the same standards as everyone else" (53).

However, as time progressed, politicians added to, changed, and restructured affirmative action. In late September 1965, President Johnson came to believe that it was not enough just to remove legal barriers confronting minorities. On September 24, 1965, Johnson issued an executive order requiring federal contractors to take affirmative action to recruit, hire, ...