Thursday, May 7, 2015
On the Origins of Affirmative Action in the U.S.
What most people fail to realize is that when affirmative action started under President Kennedy (I refer you to Executive Order 10,925) in the early '60s, there were NO PREFERENCES OR QUOTAS AT ALL, just a commitment to make certain that those group that had been discriminated in the past would no longer be discriminated against in the future. It was only years later under the administrations of Johnson (via a 1968 executive order) and Nixon (via executive orders in 1970 and 1971) that affirmative action started to be adorned with divisive lingo such as "goals and timetables", "results-oriented procedures", "quotas", etc..............................................................................................Look, I don't have a problem with certain elements of affirmative action such as outreach and giving people a chance if they're close (to being qualified), but based upon the fact that the policies have probably done more harm (the mismatching of kids with colleges and universities, the fact that middle-class blacks who don't necessarily need the help seem to getting it over poor black folks, etc.) than good, I'd probably have to say at this juncture that the Kennedy approach is probably the better one.
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4 comments:
Interesting. I strongly support the JFK version. The later versions are racist, or encourage racism, as they tilt the playing field and demand racial discrimination.
You're in the same camp as JFK, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington. You could do a lot worse.
It seems so simple. Kennedy was considered a damn northern liberal. Betcha he was more conservative than Either president Bushes in ways that made sense.
BTW, Goals and timelines are divisive?
Yes. And there is a big difference between supporting the JFK version and opposing all of what is called "affirmative action".
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