Affirmative Action Question

[Defiant]

I looked it up and it says it is a "policy", I always thought it was a law, which is correct?

[MrFun]

Doesn't matter what it is, really -- according to paranoid neurotics, AA is "reverse racism."

[Defiant]

I always believed in the right person for the right job regardless of race, creed, religion, etc....... but I wanted to understand the legality of the idea.

[Zkribbler]

It depends upon who implimented the affirmative action. When its adopted by a company, it's a policy. When it's mandated by the government, it's a law.

To me, the legality of affirmative action was best spelled out in the Bakke decision. That ruling struck down the use of quota in public university admissions.
However, Bakke cited with approval to the admissions policy of Harvard, which gave a certain amount of "points" to various minority applicants. Harvard's rationale was that these minority students added to the richness of the academic experience by bringing in their various ethnic backgrounds.

This rationale was again approved in last summer's University of Michigan (?) Law School case. Although the dissent expressed concern that these points could be adjusted to create a de facto quota system, the majority pointed out that no adjustment had ever been made.

[Az]

AA

[Buck Birdseed]

AA

[Datajack Franit]

Curious Azazel said that considering his sign

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Defiant
I always believed in the right person for the right job regardless of race, creed, religion, etc.

That's the whole point. AA stems from Title VII of the Civil Right's Act of 1965 (IIRC). What it says is, you may not turn down a qualified applicant on account of race, sex, and a couple of other catagories. What that means for the rest of us is that we have to be able to prove our hiring, recruiting, leasing, etc. is not discriminatory. Interestingly, a Southern opponent of the bill tried to kill it by offering a poison pill that added sex as one of the catagories that may not be disciminated against. Ironically, it has been the most successful aspect of Title VII.

[Caligastia]

I can see this thread going down a well-travelled path...

[Defiant]

Thanks Che,
That is the explanation I needed, I couldn't find that anywhere on the net, must sharpen my searching skills.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by MrFun
Doesn't matter what it is, really -- according to paranoid neurotics, AA is "reverse racism."

Your so tolerant of other people.

[problem_child]

AA sucks, but so do the societies that need it.