Principle of Affirmative Action Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Principle of Affirmative Action - Essay Example Hence, affirmative action involves in treating a minority class or group differently in order to provide improved opportunities to obtain certain good. There are trends to associate affirmative action with two lines; one is with compulsory quotas undermining the meritorious qualification and the other is with inequality where fairness is compromised for a preferential selection process. The origin of affirmative action can best be traced back to the Executive Order No.10925 of 1961 where then US President John F. Kennedy has urged federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure prospective job applicants and federal employees were treated in an equal manner without regard to race, creed, color or national origin. Later on, creating a definitive affirmative action policy, then president Lyndon B. Johnson expressed the need to go further by discussing how companies should increase their efforts to ensure minorities and women would have real opportunities for employment and pro motions. Thus, the aim of affirmative action is to eliminate discrimination and increase the representation of traditionally disadvantaged groups (Faundez, . 1994). For example, United Steel Workers of America, a union and Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation made a voluntary agreement to correct the years of racial discrimination against Black by reserving 50% of the openings in a training program sponsored by the corporation till the discrepancy was discarded. .