Are you for or against affirmative action?

Question

I'm for it in the workplace, because I know there are racists out there and some who are not necessarily racist, but just ignorant and have certain opinions (not the word i'm looking for) about different races.

I'm against it in educational settings, because it should be based on smarts, not race. I do not see any correlation between race and smarts, unless you happen to be a foreigner who couldn't tackle the english language,and so, were disadvantaged.

tnfarmgi..., let me expand on the reason i'm for it in the workplace. the person hiring you or responsible for promoting you could think that you shouldn't get the job or promotion because 'people like you' just aren't good enough for the job.

people get into college on their own merits, their grades (depending on what college you're going to. and, we're really not referring to those ivy league schools). can you say the same thing about jobs? nope.

Pfo , I don't think that you can teach most racists that it's wrong. That's why I'm for the govt just stepping in.

Answer 1

I think it WAS a good idea at the time. But like so many good ideas it has run amok and needs to curtailed. How can quotas based on race not be considered wrong? Heck N.H. has maybe a minority population of less than 1%, what's an international corporation suppose to do import folks from out of town to fill the required "rule book" of 2 woman or maybe it should a short african american handi-capped woman so all the boxes can be checked?

The anti-smoking campaingn worked. Did they outlaw cigarretes? No, (well not yet at least). But do people smoke less now than 20 years ago? Yes. Do people still discriminate in the work place. Yes. So

Answer 2

See, you don't fix racism by forcing racists to hire races they might not otherwise. You fix it by educating that racism is wrong. Affirmative Action is in itself a racist policy, it singles out people by race and defines how they should be treated. Just because it can help them land a job (or rather, force them to) doesn't mean it's not racist, or that it's OK racism. Given a position at a company, the person that the company feels is most qualified should get the job, period. If someone is racist, forcing them to hire someone they might not solves nothing. They probably won't treat the person any better, they would do it because they had to. Most affirmative action hires like this are let go in 1 year anyway, the person was only hired because the employer was forced to. This policy solves nothing and wastes time.

Answer 3

I am against because affirmative action is a double edged sword. You can't protect certain races etc by being racists and promoting racism against others. I think it is most vile piece of trash I have every seen. Positive discrimination is racism. How can anyone teach anyone to not be racist when you have a group of people that are promoting it in the work places and education.

Answer 4

I am against racism in all forms, which includes affirmative action.

Quite frankly, affirmative action does two negative things:

1. It gives racists an excuse for their behaviors
2. It tells minorities that they can't succeed on their own abilities, which is the wrong message to send.

You can't counter racism, with more racism.

Affirmative action judges people by the color of their skin. What do you think Martin Luther King would have said about that?

"I have a dream, that some day ALL of god's children, will be judged NOT BY THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN but by the content of their character"

Answer 5

I dont think that anyone should get special consideration based on sex or race. There are all sorts of laws to fight discrimination in hiring and education. As a business owner, I want to be able to hire the best person for the job and as a part time college instructor I would hope my students are there because they have the previous educational backround that will make them successful in a university setting.

Answer 6

this is tough, i know there's racists out there that would hold a person back from a job, but i'd like to think there aren't people like that. I'm more against it because i've noticed a lot of people get jobs based on race, get into schools based on race and so on. I think the position should go to the best candidate. If a person is superior in skill and intelligence in that area, they should have the job.

Answer 7

There are no measurable goals to affirmative action, no metrics to measure progress. A policy should only be implemented if there is a defined end to its need and metrics whereby progress towards that end can be measured. Affirmative action does not have such a defined end and so may go on forever and ever and ever....

Ask a politician what conditions must be met so that affirmative action is no longer needed and you will get hedging or platitudes or honest silence.

Answer 8

This is the result of "affirmative action." In seeking to "level the playing field," government is forcing companies to actually deny jobs to qualified people based on nothing more than on their skin and their gender.

Martain Luther King Jr., in his famous "I have a dream" speech, said that he dreamed of the day when his four children would no longer be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Unfortunately, affirmative action does just this. It makes race a factor in whether one receives a certain job, so even those it is intended to help, minorities, ARE being judged by the color of their skin; not by their qualifications and character.

Affirmative action had the right idea, but it has been poorly implimented, and it is time to put it down. The government needs to allow for companies to hire based on the qualifications and character of their applicants; not based on their skin or their sex.

The same applies to the educational environment. People's brains and their eagerness to learn should be taken into account; NOT their skin color or their sex.

Answer 9

I'm glad that the program is available in America, but I wish it weren't necessary. I think that everyone should have the best chance to be interviewed and accepted into a job if he/she is qualified. And I think that if a person is not accepted for the job, it is not necessarily due to race....but perhaps, another person was just better suited for the job.

Here in Germany, a person MUST send his/her picture in with the resume´. You can imagine the problems for foreigners or for people that are not so attractive. Their resume´ usually gets sent back regardless of qualification if the employer doesn't like your looks. I even asked a business owner if a picture were important to her. She said if someone didn't send a picture in, she would send the resume´ back. I couldn't convince her that it was unfair either. Something else people take for granted in America.

Answer 10

It had its place in history, but it has become distorted (even in the workplace) and has outlived its useful lifespan.

Several noted black leaders recently have condemned Affirmative Action programs for actually retarding the progress of blacks in the U.S. And many prominent blacks who have become successful on their own (without the help of Affirmative Action) have expressed concern that their success has been discounted because people assume they were given their opportunities without having to earn them.

Unfortunately, Affirmative Action, like many social programs, too often assists the unworthy and penalizes the cream of the crop. Not what it was supposed to do.