A634.4.4.RB - Is Affirmative Action Ethical?

Affirmative Action 

The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960 is designed to provide equal opportunities for minority group and women in education and employment. This action was to ensure “applicants are employed and their treatment during employment was fair and without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin” (Affirmative Action Overview, 2017)

The most common Supreme Court case was Brown V Board of Education in the 1950s where segregation of African Americans in schools was outlawed. Although this was a start a decade later there was still less than two percent of law and medical students were African Americans.  In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson “signed an executive order requiring government contract to use affirmative action policies in their hiring to increase the number of minority employees “Fast forward about 70 years, about “69% of white high school graduates, 65 % of African American and 63% of Hispanics automatically enroll in college” The statistics have improved over the years and my mind wonders auto enrollment verses the colleges accepting the diversity of enrollments really are not comparable. (Affirmative Action Overview, 2017)

Although affirmative action has been around for decade due to an executive order by the president, is it ethical? The affirmative action effort is supposed to break down barriers and level out the playing or competitive world. This action is not supposed to “equal out results” but to ensure everyone is given an equal opportunity and representation. (Leadership Conference, 2017)

Reverse Discrimination

I understand that the sole purpose of affirmative action was created to ensure individuals are reviewed equally for education and job employment, but there are times where I can see this approach is creating reverse discrimination where individuals such as the white male is being omitted because they don’t meet another racial criterion. The argument is affirmative action is “discriminating against white males because of their race” (p88). In my own experience in my own company the interview process for a new position must include a diverse panel such as female and male, and if either of them are black, Hispanic, or have a religious element that is double the criterion and that person will get an interview. The bad part of this process is you technically could have two white men very qualified and competitive in skills for the position and one will be eliminated because they did not make the affirmative action cut. (LaFollette, 2007)

America’s vision appears to be equality and affirmative action is government oversight to ensure everyone is treated equally. LaFollette described in reverse discriminating that “two wrongs do not make a right” (p.88). The overall question for me is affirmative action is still ethical when it has tendency to reverse discriminate against other cultures, religions, or whites. As a woman, I would never appreciate being hired only because I was a women or a white woman. I would not want to be someone’s quota as it would be very disrespectful of my time. My personal observation is that affirmative action was important when it began and it has created excellent experiences, however I feel it is no longer ethical as it has overgrown its purpose. (LaFollette, 2007)

Conclusion

Affirmative Action was developed during an era where ration tensions were high and was a method to ensure black Americans received the same education benefits and considerations for employment.  My belief of affirmative action provides preferential treatment and it is not equally inclusive to everyone and is more tiered to only help black people. I would think affirmative action is changing to include all social ethnic backgrounds that will support a variety of elements such as religion, Hispanics, and gays and lesbians. To me the concept tenets to be changed as it is no longer just back Americans who deserve affirmative action help.  I do feel affirmative action is no longer ethical. 

References:

Affirmative Action Overview. (2017, April 15). Retrieved from The 

NationalConference of State Legislatures:http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/affirmative-action-overview.aspx

LaFollette, H. (2007). The Practice of Ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Leadership Conference. (2017, April 15). Civil Rights 101. Retrieved from The

Leadership Conference: http://www.civilrights.org/resources/civilrights101/affirmaction.html