Affirmative Action

14 Pages 3391 Words

As we look at the United States of America and its people today we can see that a large number of the population is racially mixed. It is almost impossible to say that a person is one thing or another. It seems that all existing races and nationalities are to be found somewhere in the country. Several reasons are the cause of such a vast diversity of people. One of the reasons is the idea of living the American dream. People from all over the world, especially poor countries, try to come to the U.S. to start a new, better life, it does not matter if legal or illegal. Upon arrival many have to find out that life is not easy as it sometimes appears, not even in America. Employment is difficult to find and those who find a job are often underpaid or have to deal with other difficulties. To prevent situations like these from happening the government has come up with a plan known as affirmative action to protect all people that are not white males. Affirmative action means taking positive steps to recruit, hire, train, and promote individuals from groups that have traditionally been discriminated against on the basis of race, sex, disability, or other characteristics. In this sense, affirmative action goes beyond equal employment opportunity, which requires employers to eliminate discriminatory conditions, whether inadvertent or intentional, and to treat all employees equally in the workplace. The requirements can be imposed on an employer in a number of ways: by federal law, for federal government contractors and subcontractors; as part of a conciliation agreement with a state or federal agency; or by court order. In addition, some employers voluntarily adopt affirmative action plans in an effort to create a more balanced workforce. Nevertheless the situation was not always as good as it is seems to be today. Due to the history of the United States of America, affirmative action has come a long way, however it still has to go even further b...