Do We Still Need Affirmative Action?

Do We Still Need Affirmative Action?

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King spoke these words in 1963, and they still resonate today. Affirmative action programs were established to create this very type of equality, but have they brought us closer to Dr. King’s dream or hindered it?

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Equal Opportunity for All
  • Brady
    Affirmative action TAKES AWAY equal opportunity.

    Honestly, my take on affirmative action is that it often takes away jobs from the better suited person. In a nation where the white, middle-aged, protestant man has now become the person most often discriminated against, affirmative action is a step in the wrong direction. The person best suited for a job should always be the person to whom it is granted, regardless of race, gender, sexual preference, etc. A company should not be required to employ a certain amount of a certain type of person. I also, though, believe in the right of a SMALL BUSINESS OWNER to hire or not hire a person based on whatever they so choose to. It may not do their business good, but they own the business, they should have the right. Not the same goes, though, for large corporations. If a person honestly feels they are being denied a job at some corporation because of race, gender, etc. they should have the right to speak up about it. but it should no longer be a way for people of a certain ethnicity or whatever to be granted a job, no questions asked.

    - BradyUS November 10, 2008 11:37PM

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    • F2XL
      Yep, and that would be the case with athletics as well

      I sure would've liked affirmative action to be on my side if I decided to join a basketball team and not show up for practices. No doubt in my mind that I would feel a sense of pride knowing that people who actually had the skill lost their opportunity to me.

      - F2XLUS November 15, 2008 9:59PM

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