Battle Royal
Battle RoyalAffirmative Action
There are thousands of examples of situations where people of color, white
women, and working class women and men of all races who were previously excluded
from jobs or educational opportunities, or were denied opportunities once admitted, have
gained access through affirmative action. When these policies received executive branch
and judicial support, vast numbers of people of color, white women and men have gained
access they would not otherwise have had. These gains have led to very real changes.
Affirmative action programs have not eliminated racism, nor have they always been
implemented without problems. However, there would be no struggle to roll back the
gains achieved if affirmative action policies were ineffective. Affirmative action is not
about opening opportunities for unqualified individuals, but instead is designed to
increase the number of qualified applicants for employment, no matter what gender or
race they may happen to be.
� Affirmative action is not about quotas. It�s an attempt to open more
opportunities for women and people of color through aggressive recruitment and outreach
greater access to academic institutions and the work place and not exclude people on the
basis of race or gender (Holhut3). Affirmative action in the employment status consist of
publicizing job notices in places where everyone can see: recruitment: eliminating
discriminatory hiring and setting goals towards increasing opportunities for those that
were previously discriminated against. However, Affirmative action programs not only
take steps for women and minorities, but also disabled veterans, and emotionally and
economically disabled.
Affirmative action measures were established to fight racial discrimination. The
federal government mandated affirmative action programs to redress racial inequality and
injustice in a series of steps beginning with an executive order issued by president
Kennedy in 1961 (Thomas4). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made discrimination illegal
and established equal employment opportunity for all Americans regardless of race,
cultural differences, colo or religion. Subsequent executive orders in particular executive
order11246 issued by President Johnson in September 1965, mandated affirmative action
goals for all federally funded programs and moved monitoring and enforcement of
affirmative action programs out of the White House and into the labor department
(Holhut3). These policies and the government action that followed were a response to
the tremendous mobilization of African Americans and white supporters during the late
1950�s and early 1960�s pushing for integration and racial justice (Kivel2).
An area that affirmative action address is selective hiring programs. Many times
people of color have been excluded from hiring pools, overly discriminated against,
unfairly eliminated because...
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