Affirmative Action

1. Confusion about affirmative action
2. Affirmative Action and President Johnson
3. Affirmative Action and President Nixon
4. Affirmative Action and President Ford
5. Affirmative Action and President Carter
6. Affirmative Action and Presidents Reagan and Bush
7. Affirmative Action and President Clinton

Quotas vs. Goals
Preferential Treatment
Reverse Discrimination
Hiring less qualified minorities and women
The End of Affirmative Action?

Links to other affirmative action pages

Confusion about Affirmative Action

I know there is a lot of confusion out there about affirmative action. It seems that everyone and her sister has an opinion and most of these opinions are based on individual anecdotes rather than actual facts. So, for those who might be interested in learning about a real live Affirmative Action Officer..... yoo hoo! Here I am!

A little history of affirmative action to start:

Affirmative Action and President Johnson

Affirmative action was created in an Executive Order (11246) in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was speaking at Howard University about the need to go further than the passive non-discrimination laws that had recently passed. He talked about companies needing to go further to ensure that minorities (and women) were recruited in such a way that they would have real opportunities to be hired and promoted.

Affirmative Action and President Nixon

A few years later, President Richard M. Nixon, expanded the affirmative action executive order by establishing goals and timetables. This provided specific guidelines for companies to follow so that they could be in compliance with the federal regulations governing affirmative action.

Affirmative Action and President Ford

During President Gerald R. Ford's administration, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Act of 1974 were created to ensure that federal contractors had affirmative action programs for recruiting and hiring people with disabilities and Vietnam vets. However, unlike affirmative action for minorities and women, there were no goals established in this regulations. These regulations involved recruitment efforts, accessibility and accommodation issues and reviewing the physical and mental job qualifications of job descriptions to ensure that otherwise qualified disabled applicants and employees were not screened out of consideration for positions.

Affirmative Action and President Carter

President Jimmy Carter, while he was in office, consolidated all the federal agencies that enforced affirmative action into one main agency under the U.S. Department of Labor. Prior to this, every federal agency enforced AA in its own way. Being that these agencies were not always consistent in their approaches, it was decided that one main agency would be best. Thus, he created the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Many people are not familiar with this agency even though it has existed since 1978. This is where I began my career in affirmative action.

Affirmative Action and Presidents Reagan and Bush

During the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, affirmative action was cut back, ignored, etc. Major reductions in force occurred as a way of doing their very best to kill affirmative action in a quiet way (unlike today, of course!). As a result, I was laid off....but then rehired in another city. Within a year, I was back at my former office. No harm done.

However, the one major positive step was the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which covers not only employment but other arenas such as public accommodations as well.

Affirmative Action and President Clinton

Now, under President Bill Clinton, many republicans are drooling at the possibility of regaining the White House. Like with the Willie Horton issue, they needed something to scare middle America into changing party lines. So, their latest political football is Affirmative Action. They use buzz words incorrectly and on purpose to instigate anger and rage. Words like: quotas, reverse discrimination, preferential treatment and the hiring of less qualified minorities and women. If Newt Gingrich and his ilk want to get rid of these four things, it will do nothing to harm affirmative action... because affirmative action doesn't involve any of them!!!

President Clinton's Remarks on Affirmative Action from his July 19, 1995 Press Conference.

If you'd like to write to the president and tell him how you feel about affirmative action or anything else, you can do so by clicking here.

Just to give you a sense of why these terms are misused, I'd like to explain:

Quotas vs. Goals

Quota: A quota is court-ordered by a judge sometimes when a company has committed a particularly egregious discriminatory action or series of actions against a particular race or sex, etc. For example, the judge may require a company to promote one black person for every white person it promotes until there are a certain number of black managers in the company. It is a rigid number that MUST be achieved.... or else. This is ordered by a judge, so, if the company fails to show it has made an effort toward following this quota (sometimes called a consent decree), the company can be fined a lot of money.

This is very different from an affirmative action goal, which is what 99.9% of the corporate affirmative action officers, like me, establish for their companies. (I'm certain there are overzealous AA Officers, so I figured I'd give them .1%).

Goal: A goal is a flexible percentage established by the company to achieve a diverse workforce. The percentage is based primarily (though not solely) on the availability of minorities and females in the areas surrounding metropolitan area.

So, you see that a goal is very flexible..... it expands and contracts with the size of the job group. And, as soon as the goal is achieved..... no more need to recruit minorities. And if the goal is not achieved, it is re-established the following year.... and again and again, until it is achieved. This is VERY different from a rigid quota which must be achieved or else the judge will do something very nasty to the company.

Preferential Treatment

Preferential treatment: True affirmative action (not this garbage dreamed up by Newt Gingrich) involves aggressive recruitment efforts to ensure that every applicant pool includes a diverse mix of people. If I have a goal for minorities, I will provide the recruiter with the names of organizations that have job banks for minorities any time we recruit externally. But we always start by recruiting internally (for a promotional opportunity). In these instances, I identify minorities (and/or women... depending upon the goal) who presently hold a job in the "feeder job group" and send them a letter with a copy of the job posting. The letter encourages them to apply, tells them that receipt of the letter doesn't guarantee them an interview or other preferential treatment. It simply informs them of the opening and encourages them to apply.

Reverse Discrimination

Reverse discrimination: This one really gets me angry because it makes the assumption that when you discriminate against a black person or a woman, that's not as bad as when you discriminate against a white male. In actuality, I don't believe there is such thing as reverse discrimination. Discrimination is discrimination is discrimination. It can happen to anybody regardless of their race, sex, religion, national origin, etc., etc.

Before affirmative action, companies didn't post their jobs on bulletin boards. Somebody just happened to know someone who needed a job and..... bingo...... the job was filled. And, trust me, that person wasn't always the best qualified person for the job. There are a lot of mediocre middle-aged white male managers out there who are very lucky to have received their first break because they didn't have to compete with the rest of the world for the job. Talk about not having a merit system. There WAS no merit system before affirmative action. It was simply the "old boy network."

How can a company possibly tell if it is hiring the best people if they only consider a small segment of the population? Affirmative action required companies to "cast a wider net" when seeking applicants. So, if the "angry white males" out there are upset because they now have to compete for the jobs that used to be theirs for the asking..... well, boo hoo hoo. (Sorry, that was really nasty..... but I just get sooooo ticked off when people just assume that all the white males out there are naturally qualified and all the minorities and women were given breaks because they couldn't possiblity be qualified!!!)

Hiring less qualified minorities and women

Hiring less qualified minorities and females. Well, I've seen bad and good in all races and both sexes. I've seen people get promoted for jobs that they had no business getting. And this included middle-aged white males, young black males, older asian females, etc. It doesn't matter to me what race or sex you are.... but you'd better be qualified or the person who promoted you has lost his/her credibility.

The End of Affirmative Action?

Well, I hope this has helped you, gentle reader, understand the life of an Affirmative Action Officer. If we did establish and push quotas, we certainly wouldn't need affirmative action anymore, because we would be at parity for all our goals. But, because we establish goals and do everything legally possible to achieve them, they take longer to achieve. It just is not possible to undo hundreds of years of slavery and discrimination in just 30 short years. I hope to see the end of affirmative action in my life time. I would gladly find another profession if I knew that minorities and women have obtained full employment. But until then.......

Links to other affirmative action pages

You will find me here arguing for its existence. Thank you and let me know what you think. Here are some interesting web sites on this subject.

Americans United for Affirmative Action (AUAA)

Everything you ever wanted to know about affirmative action

Affirmative Action Professionals

You can e-mail me at JHirsch29@aol.com.

This page was last updated July 26, 1997