Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Affirmative Action

What is affirmative action? According to dictionary.com, affirmative action is
the encouragement of increased representation of women and minority-group members, especially in employment. Also, "according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission affirmative action is a policy that is orchestrated to "...overcome the discriminating effect of past or present practices, policies, or other barriers to equal employment opportunity"".
 This topic is very controversial. Many people have different opinions about it. Some people agree with it while others don't. This argument has also sparked many problems and many conflicts have arose from this.
I believe that affirmative action is a big step toward bringing opportunities for those who need it. For example, black, hispanics, and asians dont get as much opportunity as whites. Affirmative action increases the representation of minorities and women in education, employment, and the right to start or open a business. In the past none of these people had the right to do these things. During the 60's, black men earned only 60 percent as much as the white man did. By the 1990's a black man earned 74% as much as a white men did. Statisitis show that "The ratio of the average black workers' earnings to the average white workers' earnings increased significantly in the 1940s, increased slightly if at all in the 1950s, increased significantly between 1960 and the mid 1970s, and declined somewhat since the late 1970s." Affirmative action is the thing that can help improve this and increase the representation of minorities.

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