Archives - Politics: Page 33
Author: Tropical Traveler (Tue Jun 20, 2006 2:21 pm)
Title: Affirmative Action: equality or not?
Does affirmative action lower our standards? Does it help the country's discrimination problems? Is it reducing the disadvantages of minorities? Or is it destroying opportunities for anyone who is not a minority?
All affirmative action does is give minorities a foot in the door. After they are in that door they have to prove themselves worthy of the position. Affirmative action in no way shape or form lowers our standards because standards are entirely based upon a set of requirements that remain constant reguardless of the person. Affirmative action forces companies to reduce some of their racial bias so that minorities can dispell any of the preconceived notions about white intellectual supremecy and prove that they can meet or exceed the "requirements"
I agree that it definitely helps minorities get their feet in the door at many companies to get a chance to prove their worth. I just think its a shame that we can't eliminate such stereotypes all together. While affirmative action helps in all of the ways you mentioned, it hurts in one big way: it further stresses the racial tension in this country by forcing people to hire workers that they don't want to hire. We hope that when the minorities begin to prove themselves worthy to stand with whites that this tension will dissipate, however, old habits die hard..and this is an OLD habit. Hopefully, with time, we can all begin to smooth things over. Change is difficult because it only takes one person to destroy the good work of 10 others of the same race.