By the Content of Their Character...

   America has changed tremendously since slavery, the Civil War and terrible riots and upheaval of the 1960’s, where African- Americans were fighting against segregation to gain the basic social and civil rights which every human being deserves.

 During this time many African- Americans were (among other horrible things) being denied jobs, food service, and educational opportunities that would effectively prevent them from being able to raise themselves and their families into more profitable future situations.

       The civil rights movement helped to successfully raise our country’s awareness- both socially and politically- to begin righting some of our nations horrendous past practices that African -Americans suffered and to create the equality for EVERYONE, our four fathers meant when they stated- “All men are Created Equal.”

The turmoil of these riots prompted President Kennedy to impose “Executive Order 10925” which states- “affirmative action is to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin."

It was a step in the right direction to help level the playing field for the melting pot our nation had turned into. Unfortunately, President Kennedy was assassinated before he was able to push through any of his more comprehensive legislation and the torch was passed to Lyndon Johnson.  

Four years later LBJ called Affirmative Action, a major stepping stone to help the movement of African- Americans upwards in the USA and “To achieve true Freedom.”

In 1967, President Johnson took it one step further and amended a previous executive order on Equal Employment Opportunity to expressly mention "discrimination on account of sex" as well. Females would now be getting the governments support to stop the discrimination they suffered in the workplace as well.

These changes were instrumental in helping minorities and women to finally begin having better job opportunities and helped to create diversity among the American workforce. This helped many Americans begin to shed their previous held prejudices against people of different colors or religions

Gradually, our nation has become more accepting of others differences, and for the most part, people are now judged on their merit and intelligence, instead of simply their race.

          In 2008 Americans witnessed a monumental moment when Barack Obama, a half white/ half black American, became the first non-white and biracial president in our nation’s history. It showed that Americans were ready to trust a candidate not based on anything besides how capable they would be in running the Country.

This should now officially shift the argument of A.A in America- to focus on financial inequalities as well.

Diversity in college and businesses are now common and while racism still exists, and will never be eradicated fully, and by acknowledging that racism is evil and awful -people should now be judged on merits and that’s it.

If you’re the best, smartest, hardest worker- you get the job.

There is no affirmative action for  5’6, 200 pound white basketball player in college, because they are no good and take up a spot others could benefit from and more importantly  take away an  “opportunity” for the better skilled, talented- White, Chinese, Latino, etc… player.

How does this work in NCAA sports but not in NCAA Education?

There are now opportunities for everyone- and people of all colors have realized the American dream through education and lots of hard work.

We have a women and an African American serving on the Supreme Court and just recently added a Latino women to this prestigious position, not-to mention the first female Speaker of the House- Nancy Pelosi.

Minorities and women serve in the House and Senate and are CEO’s of some of the most successful companies in the world. They got there through dedication, skill, and sacrifice and I’m sure every single one of them will tell you that.

            Now Affirmative Action is having un-intended consequences that are beginning to hurt white (especially poor males) who are perfectly competent for jobs or academically competent to gain admission to state colleges but are being denied based on race, simply so colleges can meet certain quotas specified by the government to accept minorities, if state institutions do not follow these guidelines than they lose a substantial amount of state and government education funds.
This was included in LBJ’S 1965 Amendment to the original A.A bill and states:

“The order specifically requires certain organizations accepting federal funds to take affirmative action to increase employment of members of preferred racial or ethnic groups and women. Any organization with fifty or more employees and an aggregate revenue exceeding $50,000 from a single federal contract during a twelve month period must have a written affirmative action plan. This plan must include goals and timetables for achieving full utilization of women and members of racial minorities, in quotas based on an analysis of the current workforce compared to the availability in the general labor pool of women and members of racial minorities.

The order is enforced by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs of the Employment Standards Administration of the U. S. Department of Labor and by the Office of Civil Rights of the Justice Department.”

(It was later amended to also include state institutions as well)

So now we have a government law that requires diversity in schools and at the workplace that is inherently racist in itself. It states that a minority can be accepted to college or hired for a job based on their race and not their intelligence or capability’s.

Colleges have lower admission standards for minorities to help meet their quotas. So in essence the law is saying that just because of your ancestry the bar is lower for you and you are needed help to get into college or get a job, because you lack the smarts to do it with your own mind or hard work. That’s explicitly racist in their written words, the government is saying this not me.

Meanwhile, what happens to the poor Appalachian kid who happened to be born white and studied hard- getting great grades yet gets denied because of his race only?

Affirmative Action now has evolved into a scale which has become increasingly unbalanced with the lower class whites getting hit the hardest. It also encourages applicants to claim any “thread” of nationality that may have been mixed in their family decades ago and this allows them the opportunity to simply check whatever ethnic box they believe will help them in the admissions process.

With the progression of minorities and women in this nation, our country needs to now advance our Affirmative Action law to simply base the college admissions process on one’s family income only and get rid of any questions based on race, religion, ethnicity…etc

 Admission needs to be based on grades- simply across the board for everyone. A poor country kid should be able to get the same treatment as a wealthy, suburban, minority who has worse grades and has lived a more privileged life.

Rural, white, adults aged 18-40, with only a High School education; make up the highest number of enlisted servicemen in our nation’s Armed Forces. Could A.A be a cause for this disparity?

So as our nation continues to advance in the right direction towards race and gender equality we now must take the next step to include financial discrimination to judge ones ability’s equally, and if anything, allow the less fortunate Americans the great opportunity to gain the same chances everyone else now receives.

As Martin Luther King famously said  :  “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

It’s now time we start following those wonderful words of wisdom…