Is affirmative action a good law or bad one?
Well, it's niether good or bad.
It's a means to an end. Historically, there has always been a stigma placed on being a non-male-caucasian American in The United States. This stigma has led people to deny opportunities to non-caucasians and women. Affirmative Action was put in place to force the hand of corporate America, to right an obvious wrong. It's usefullness has waned with every passing year as people look past racial and gender barriers, and though there are still instances in which it is needed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make an argument for it's existence. Though, theoretically, as long as there is any 'unjust' disparity in hiring practices there will always be a need.
Incidentally, all applicants have to meet the pre-requisites for a job in order to be hired for any position. Affirmative Action does not help unqualified people gain positions they shouldn't have.
Affirmative action did what it was designed to do.
I remember when it was acceptable to call a "colored person" who was older than you "boy" or "girl."
No one could imagine that the races would be even close to being on an equal footing only 50 years later.
So if you believe in promoting racial equality, it is a good law.
If you believe that we are now equal and that a further handicap in favor of minorities is now unnecessary, it is bad.
Most people don't realize that in companies that hire purely based on acheivement, regardless of race, they never have to worry about affirmitive action, they are never in threat of falling below the ridiculous quotas.
Companies that have issues need to wonder more about why minorities are so underepresented in their companies.
But we, as a country, need to address the racial problems we still have. I wish we didn't need Affirmative Action. And I honestly beleve, that we don't in most companies. The law isn't their for most companies.
It's there for those few who insist on holding on to the old way of thinking here in Greenwich and across the country
The Fact's Are The Facts:
Last May, Greenwich Parks And Recreation Department employee Ron Harding filed a complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities alleging he had persistently been denied a chance to get a position with the higher-paying -- and all-white -- tree service division of the parks department.
Forty-eight complaints have been filed with the agency against the Town of Greenwich in a five-year period beginning July 1, 2004.
Greenwich has seen several racially tinged controversies, probably none as prominent as the 1995 scandal in which five Greenwich High School seniors carried out a coded joke on the pages of the high school's yearbook. Letters beneath their photographs on different pages formed the phrase "Kill All NIGGERS"
Racial relations are smooth on the surface but tension arises on a regular basis.
Eight minority Greenwich police officers -- six black and two Latino -- alleged they were overlooked for promotions to higher-profile and higher-paying positions that instead went to white police officers.
In December 2009, the town and the eight officers agreed to settle the case just before a judge was to uphold or overturn an earlier jury verdict awarding five officers damages -- a move that officially closed the book on the four-year-old case.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights noted major disparities between Hamilton Avenue School and other public elementary schools.
There was a time that Jews like Greenwich Roundup were not allowed to live in Greenwich.
You could rent a store in Greenwich, but you couldn't own a house in Greenwich.
Temple Shalom was started by Greenwich Avenue merchants who were not allowed to live in the town they worshiped in.
Image via Wikipedia
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