Affirmative Action

Garrett Kendall

Topic: What damage Affirmative Action is causing.

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience into taking action against Affirmative action.

General Purpose: To Persuade

Organizational Pattern: Problem-Solution

Central Ideas: People of all races should take action against Affirmative Action because of its racially discriminating requirements against firefighters and college students, therefore people should be urged to either write a letter to their state senator or have your local newspaper write an article including the facts I will tell you today.

Introduction: The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees “No state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws.” Now does it seem fair for a workplace or the federal government to hold a job from a white male for his skin color and sex? How about applying for a college and having your spot filled in the University of your choice because a quota needs to be met. Can you think of an instance where you were discriminated against because of your race? Well this is what affirmative action does. It gives minorities an unfair advantage to receive jobs or get accepted into a university that they do not qualify for. One of my options after high school was to become a firefighter but decided against it because of the politics involved in the getting a spot on the force. I could not take a chance of being unemployed because of a law that I had no control over. In a famous speech, President Lyndon Johnson used the following analogy: he compared affirmative action to that of two people competing in a race. One man trains hard for six months, while the other is in heavy shackles and can’t train at all. Who do you think is going to win when it’s race time? Well when thinking about affirmative action, doesn’t it seem fair that we help the guy who is in shackles? Of course it does, but it is the way that we help the guy in shackles that is wrong. Instead of releasing the shackles on this man, affirmative action would just be placing heavier rust-covered shackles on the man that had none to start with because he had gotten to train for the race ahead of time. This places an unnecessary disadvantage on the man who had no shackles on to begin with. Think about it! Instead of releasing the man from his shackles at the starting line and viewing him as an equal, with regard to what he has gone through before the race, all they really did was turn around and place the discrimination on the man who originally was not at a disadvantage. Do you believe two wrongs make a right? Lynn Swan who is an African American that played football for the Pittsburg Steelers in the 1970’s and ran for governor in Pennsylvania is against Affirmative Action because he realizes the damages it is causing and how it is a racist law. People of all races should take action against Affirmative Action because of its racially discriminating requirements against white firefighters and college students, therefore people should be urged to either write a letter to their state senator or have your local newspaper write an article including the facts I will tell you today.

(Transition, now I will tell you the problem of Affirmative Action and how firefighters and college students are being discriminated against for their skin color.)

I. The problem is Affirmative Action is taking unfair measures against white fire fighters and college students.

A. Firefighters are being discriminated against for their skin color.

1. My wrestling coach in high school set the physical training test record and top of the written test at the West Metro Fire Department yet did not get the job because they needed an African American to fill the position.

2. The minority that got the job was in the bottom 90th percentile on both tests.

3. My wrestling coach’s story is just one of many like it where a white male has been discriminated against because of the way he was born, not the choice he made.

B. According to The Rocky Mountain news, the Denver Fire Department had not had an African American on the force for six years and was catching massive amounts of grief and even law suites over it.

1. La Don Williams was ranked 88th out of 100 applicants and hadn’t been able to pass the written test his past 4 years of trying so the DFD let him take an oral test to pass.

2. Would you want La Don Williams to be on the crew sent to save your children to keep the quota satisfied?

C. Affirmative action is also affecting college students in a negative manner.

1. You and a minority are applying to a university and there is only one spot.

2. Your grades are slightly better, your act score is one point higher,