Affirmative action policies and law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Affirmative action policies and law - Essay Example For quite some time now,certain ethnic and minority groups have been pushing for better rights when it comes to higher education,employment,and government contracts.This has resulted in preferential hiring,college admissions and the allocation of government contracts when it comes to women and minority groups. It also applies to the awarding of other social benefits for these groups. The problem is that some people consider it to be reverse discrimination (Bardach, 2005; Holzer and Neumark, 2000 and Holzer and Neumark, 2006).The Civil Rights Act of 1964 started the whole push towards affirmative action. It was designed to make up for past discrimination of women and certain minority groups. In order to be considered in an affirmative action group, one or more of the following criteria must occur, which is considered different than the criteria that a regular employee would have:In the 1978 ruling of the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, significant limitations were pl aced on affirmative action programs. Further limitations were placed on affirmative action programs in 1995's Adarand Constructors v. Pena and 1996's Texas v. Hopwood (Kane, 1998).1996 brought the most significant change in affirmative action programs up until this date. At that time, California voted in Proposition 209. This proposition refused to allow government agencies and related institutions from giving preferential treatment to or discriminating against individuals based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin. This did not just take place in California, as other states soon adopted similar rules. In Michigan, the United States Supreme Court ruled that race could not be the leading factor in making such decisions as admission to the University of Michigan and its law school (Kane, 1998). When President Kennedy developed the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in 1961, the term 'affirmative action' was first used. Affirmative action can be defined by the Report of the Citizen's Commission on Civil Rights, circa 1984, as any measure that is taken on to prevent or compensate for discriminatory action that was taken in the past, as well as to prevent it in the future. This goes beyond the simple doing away with a discriminatory practice (Kane, 1998 and Long, 2004). Affirmative action has been challenged over and over again, mainly occurring at the level of the state. The Supreme Court refused to interfere with the law passed with Proposition 209 in 1996, which bans state and local governments from hiring individuals or showing other types of preferential treatment based on the aforementioned factors in the preceding paragraphs (Kane, 1998 and Long, 2004). In 1997, former President Bill Clinton pushed for the 'mend it, don't end it' measure. As far as racial matters, he began an Initiative on Race to encourage communication on racial issues. There are many affirmative action resources available for the latest updates on the measures. These include the following: 1. The Washington Post: Affirmative Action Special Report 2. American Association for Affirmative Action 3. Americans Against Discrimination and Preferences 4. Official Proposition 209 Site (Powell, 2009) Currently, anti-discrimination laws are reaching a new level. They are being pushed so hard on a daily basis that many believe it has reached a point of 'reverse discrimination.' (Powell, 2009) Discuss the nature of the affirmative action policies you describe above in the context of being antipoverty, antidiscrimination, and compensatory. Worsening circumstances for poor individuals has been at least partially blamed for affirmative action, many scholars agree. The fact is that, after the Current Population Survey and a