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Old 08-22-2006, 08:01 PM   #1 (permalink)
GREG@SN95
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Default why america is screwed up... PART II

Don't ask for cliff notes...
This something that is 100% true...
I wrote this up... and even cited sources...

Topic... affirmative action...
_________________
The United States is known as the land of opportunity. Up until a short time ago, every U.S. citizen was given equal opportunity in education and employment regardless of race, sex, religion, or disability. This enabled everyone to be the best that they could be. However, during the mid 60’s, this began to change. Bob Dylan warned that “The times, they are a changin’.” He sang, “The line, it is drawn, the curse, it is cast” then he prophesized that, “the first one now will later be the last” Now, the white male majority is discriminated against.

The better Jobs and Education opportunities are awarded to individuals who are a minority. Now, scholarships are no longer given the most successful students, but to students who are minorities. Someone may be awarded with a job, not because they were the most qualified, but because they are classified as a minority. How can this be allowed? Didn’t Thomas Jefferson say that, “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness…?” It seems to me, that in employment and education, all men are not treated equal, and that their rights are being violated by affirmative action.

Employment and Education opportunities that are reserved for someone of a particular race is discrimination. In 1990, a Hispanic student filed suit against the University of Maryland. The student’s mother was born in Costa Rica. He had a 4.0 grade point average and scored 1340 on his SAT’s. His school performances had exceeded that of every other applicant except two. However, he was disqualified for the Banneker Scholarship, which only required a 3.0 average and a 900 SAT, for failing to meet the criteria of “being black.” The Judge ruled in favor of the school who awarded the scholarship to someone less qualified merely because they were “black”

Not only has the U.S. government failed to protect the rights of all citizens in employment and education, but White Male discrimination is encouraged. The government encourages its contractors to practice white male subcontractor discrimination, by ways of providing compensation for doing business with minorities. This was proven true when a Colorado prime contractor, after rejecting a white male’s low subcontracting bid on a highway guardrail job, gave the contract to a Hispanic owned firm and received a ten thousand dollar bonus from the federal road program. For some reason, minorities are considered disadvantaged under federal law. The federal road program, if a subcontractor subs out ten percent of its jobs to “disadvantaged” business enterprise, a 1.5 percent affirmative action bonus is awarded to them. How are these types of discrimination allowed? Doesn’t our constitution prohibit this type of discrimination?

Our constitution clearly does illegalize all types of discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Section 703 clearly states that,
“It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer -
(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin…”
In fact, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, this, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination. How can employers and the government manage to get away with these acts of discrimination?

The Pendleton Act of 1883 presented competitive entrance examinations for public employment seekers. The Act gave birth to the merit selection principal. A concept by which members of an organization are selected based on his or her personal achievements. These achievements are measured openly through fair and competitive competition. The white male majority, who founded this nation, prospered and left others behind.
The prospering white male majority and the merit system were then accused of writing “white man’s” laws. It was alleged that employment had been structured with “artificial barriers” in place to impede the advancement of minorities. So, the government decided to lower the standards for individuals who were classified as a minority. Now the best were no longer the best due to their accomplishments, but merely because they were a minority figure.

In March of 1961, John F. Kennedy signed Executive order 10925 which created the President’s Committee on Equal Opportunity. President Lyndon Johnson went on to publicly introduce affirmative action in 1965 as a discrimination neutralizing endeavor for “disadvantaged” groups. Preferential programs were introduced to override the merit system.
These preferential programs were made to ensure success to minority groups. Now a person no longer had to work to become successful, they only had to be black, female or some other type of minority.

This new type of Affirmative Action had diversity power. Recruiting, scholarships, and retention programs began to favor minorities. To help diversify work forces, Test preparation courses, test modification, and test elimination strategies emerged. Affirmative Action quotas resulted in race base selections. In the 1980’s, aptitude tests were introduced with ethnic point spreads.
These programs were discriminatory and very expensive. Not only did they limit what the white male majority could achieve, but they were paid for by the U.S. taxpayers. The Wall street journal released an article that stated, “Estimates have put the annual cost of affirmative action in excess of $100 billion.” Affirmative action is very discriminative and costly to the citizens of the USA.
In June of 1997, the Christian Science monitor reported a case of affirmative action in higher education. Cheryl Hopwood, a very successful student with high grades and test scores applied to the University of Texas law school. However, her application was denied while others with lower grades and test scores were accepted because they were minorities. Cheryl went on to file suit. After years of fighting the school’s decision in court, she won the case and Texas went on to prohibit considering race as a factor for admission and/or aid. Why was there ever a program ever introduced that allowed admission to a law school, not because of school performance, but because of race?
Affirmative action is discrimination and limits the ability of those who are not a minority. Affirmative action polices are used everywhere in employment. What will happen if affirmative action is used in the recruiting process of this country’s police officers, firefighters, and medical technicians? Those important people who are selected to protect the safety and well being of this county’s citizens may not be the best that they can be. Now, a police officer may not have received his or her job because they scored better then everyone else on their proficiency exams, or because they performed better then everyone else in the police academy. They may have been selected merely because they are a minority. While they are protecting us, someone more qualified may be on the unemployment line.

It seems that now, the United States of America is the land of Opportunity only if you are a minority. Presidential Candidate Alan Keyes said, ”We are supposed to be judged as individuals, based on what we are able to achieve.” However, with affirmative action, you do not have to do well or accomplish much, you only have to be a minority to accomplish anything.
“…our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…,” Abraham Lincoln stated in his famous Gettysburg Address. America was founded as a place where everyone is treated equal, however, Affirmative action promotes unequal treatment. America is no longer a place where, if you work hard, you can achieve anything. As an attempt to diversify working America, affirmative action has succeeded. But, its overall effect is much worse. The cost of affirmative action alone has been a burden to the country. However, when someone fails to receive a chance in education or employment that they worked for and may rightfully deserve, then affirmative action is appalling. And when affirmative action pokes it’s head into employment fields such as law enforcement, fire fighting, and medical practice, then it claims more victims outside of employment. Affirmative action is a violation of our Constitutional Rights and it is discrimination.

“Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons.”
(Aristotle)
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