Discrimination Continues to Exist
Discrimination still exists . Now more than ever, the continued use of affirmative action is needed to address existing discrimination, to break down barriers and to ensure that all individuals have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their talents and abilities. In FY 2007, 82,792 charges of discrimination were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, up from 75,768 in 2006. The Department of Labor collected $51,680,950 for 22,251 workers subjected to discrimination in FY 2007.
Affirmative action prevents discrimination by encouraging efforts to investigate and eliminate barriers to equal opportunity before they become discriminatory acts. Affirmative action also calls on employers to diversify the pool of qualified individuals from which it can make a selection. It does not require quotas or preferences. Affirmative action eliminates race and gender preferences that some have enjoyed for centuries. Affirmative action gives everyone a chance to compete.
We have made progress, but there is a long road ahead . As a nation, we have made significant progress in recent years in creating equal access to opportunity, but there remains much work to be done. Affirmative action presents itself as a proven solution to addressing existing discrimination and promoting equal opportunity.
Ending affirmative action would end the dreams of opportunity for many . Policies and programs to ensure equality of opportunity provide the only assurance that many women, people of color, veterans and the disabled have that they can compete – and be evaluated fairly – for jobs and educational opportunities.
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The fact that discrimination exists does not permit anyone to use the government , an institution validated by its monopoly on the use of force, to mold the culture. If one sincerely wishes to make a change in society (for example, to minimize racism in the job market), then it is one's valid right and moral responsibility to do so peacefully (through organized boycott , for example), and not by using the legislative process, validated by physical force.
In other words, violence should never be the answer to a social problem. Using the government is only practical because the government's laws are enforced using physical force, the initiation of physical violence (the police 's role). This use of force is only validated when force has been used first (i.e. when the criminal action actually involves violence, and is not peaceful). Racism in the job market, however immoral it might be, is the prerogative of the employer - he or she owns the business, and has the right to do with it what he or she wants. To use physical aggression to force a racist employer to hire minorities is not a valid solution for discrimination - the end is good, but the means are evil. Peaceful means, such as boycott, are morally justified. Otherwise, violence is not a valid way of making somebody think fairly.
Not only is affirmative action morally invalidated by its foundation in the use of physical force, but it also requires that which it purports to destroy. To say that affirmative action programs still allow competition by skill and character is paradoxical. The whole, undeniable, explicit basis of affirmative action is looking at someone's race or ethnicity in determining their potential. If we really want to get rid of racism and discrimination, we should attempt (peacefully, without violence) to eliminate race and ethnicity as valid points of evaluation, and not use them for either hatred or "fairness".
Does discrimination still exist ... Yes... my son had always wanted to work for the Railroad... An add in a local newspaper stated that railroad workers was needed it also stated that women and minorities were welcome.. Well my son who was 20 at the time drove to another town 100 miles away to apply. We he got there the immediately called all the black men and all women in for interviews and 2 white men who had union cards that they had to take in.. The requirements for this job was to be able to lift 100 lbs. in order to hook trains together.. most of the women they kept did not even weigh that much.. the black men were all in business suits looking for management jobs ..My son a strong 20 yr old who had worked on a farm his whole life and could do the job was sent home along with all the rest of the white men.. Does discrimination exist.. Yes for all people and especially this day in time for white people..