Protecting Executive Order 11246–Affirmative Action

17 August, 2008 09:02:00 thewriteup

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August 2008

With propositions to end Affirmative Action on the November 2008 ballot in five states, presidential candidates, Senators Barak Obama and John McCain are being pressed by the media for their position on this political hot-topic. While Senator Obama has a voting record in support of Affirmative Action, in a recent interview with ABC’s This Week Senator McCain voiced his opposition to Affirmative Action and his support for Proposition 104. This ballot initiative is Arizona’s version of California’s Proposition 209, which put an end to a measure designed to protect all citizens against institutional racism. According to the anti-Affirmative Action group Arizona Civil Rights Initiative (AzCRI), Proposition 104 seeks to amend Arizona’s Constitution, "to prohibit preferential treatment or discrimination" by any state agency including schools and universities. However, BAMN – The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights states on their website that Proposition 104 would lead to an increase in discriminatory practices against women, minorities and the immigrant community. BAMN also maintains that AzCRI misled minorities, whose signatures were sought after for the petition that would allow the proposition on the ballot. Ward Connerly, founder of the American Civil Rights Institute, has led the crusade to rid Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma of Affirmative Action policies in the belief that this will lead to a "color-blind" government. Andrew Thomas, Maricopa’s County Attorney and AzCRI Chairman, who enlisted Ward Connerly’s help in Arizona, considers Affirmative Action a divisive system of "racial and gender preferences." McCain and other opponents of Affirmative Action suggest that the program is a quota system that awards educational and career opportunities to less than qualified women and minorities, and consistently overlooks better qualified white applicants. Executive Order 11246 – Affirmative Action clearly states that it does not require quotas or require employers to hire persons who are less than qualified. The United States Department of Labor – Employment Standards Administration states that Affirmative Action requires federal contractors and subcontractors to take action to ensure that all individuals have an equal opportunity for employment, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The US Department of Labor also states that "affirmative action is necessary to prevent discrimination and to address stereotypical thinking and biases that still impede employment opportunity." Contrary to popular belief, racial preference was not born out of Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, but was conceived with the establishment of a nation that utilized the subjugation of one group of people for the monetary gains of another. In doing so the inhumane system of slavery was justified, and when its monetary usefulness began to wane and legislation made it illegal, an alternative was created whereby racial preference for white Americans would continue and be sanctioned under state and federal law. The ratification of the 13th and 14th amendments were not enough to keep individual states from sanctioning practices that were clearly unfair to non-white citizens. Denial of access to housing, medical care, career and educational opportunities were commonplace after the end of slavery, relegating Black citizens and other minorities to an existence that made it increasingly harder to sustain their families. In response, Black communities created schools and services that would address the needs of a population that state and federal governments continued to neglect. Affirmative Action, in its effort to create fair housing, education, and employment opportunities, has enabled underrepresented groups to prove their worth to America. Connerly’s supposition that Obama’s being the presumptive Democratic nominee for president is evidence that racism no longer exists in this nation is reckless. Underrepresented men and women across this nation continue to deal directly with unfair practices that only legislation can keep at bay. Without an alternative system in place to ensure equal opportunity, and without ways to measure its success, the eradication of Affirmative Action would be to the detriment of every American.

-Karen Rowe Gilliland

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