Equal Employment

The early 1960's the workplace in United States was a unjust and biased place. The opportunities for minorities could have been consider nonexistence in the United States. The minorities did not only consist of people of different races but women and people with disabilities. Federal ,state and local legislation decided to do something about the inequality of the workplace. The idea of equal employment opportunity is introduced to the United States. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed to prevented employers from paying employees of one gender more or less than an employee of the opposite gender, after the passing of this act there was several to follow. The amendment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination Act of 1967, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and several more acts was passed since the beginning of the Equal Employment Opportunity in the 1960s. The world today is a different place, diversity is the main focus of many workplace and many business would not be operating today without the minority workforce. The workplace is far from perfect , discrimination lawsuits are being filed everyday where a employee believes he or she is being discriminated against. The lawsuits are not just about race or gender but about sex orientation, religion, and culture. Affirmative action is the results of equal employment opportunities; which requires an employer to take positive action when hiring employees regardless of their race, creed, color or national origin. (mondy, 2010).

Affirmative action is a controversial issues in the United States, some people feel that affirmative action is solving discrimination with discrimination. The use of affirmative action is being debated, do we still need it in the workplace or have we become diverse enough to where we do not need to regulate employers on who they hire. The use affirmative action has introduced reverse discrimination in the workplace. Reverse discrimination is when the person of the majority is discriminated against because of their gender or race . The use of affirmative action is still in our workforce but is it causing the white male to become the minority instead of the majority. Reverse discrimination is not only impacting the workplace on who employer hires but it also impact college admissions. Colleges are looking applications, if two students have the same credentials to go the school ,the college will choose the minority so they will fill their affirmative action quota. The website BalancedPolitics.org made this statement about affirmative action and reverse discrimination "Affirmative action is designed to end discrimination and unfair treatment of employees/students but it does the opposite. White who work harder and /or more qualified can be passed over because they are white". (messerli, 2010)

Reverse discrimination has two arguments, is it a result of affirmative action and do white males have a legitimate concern that they are becoming the next minority in the work place. I believe the white male does have concern with reverse discrimination. Workplaces are becoming more diverse, the shop floor are not managed by the white male as they once were. Women are becoming more involve in engineering and managing . People from other countries are coming to the United States and sharing their ideas and experiences. I have seen in my place of employment the changes of management over the years, there was time when we did not have female supervisors or engineers on the shop floor. We now have several female supervisors , many different nationalities in our salaries positions and a female is the manager over the engineering department. I would say we have just as many minorities as we do whites males in our upper management position, this is just one example on how diverse some work forces have become. So do white males in the work force have that right to be concerned, I think maybe they do .

Reverse discrimination could be consider the negative side of affirmative action or is it just the way the world is evolving that everyone is created equal so we will not have a dominate gender or race in the work force . I do not believe affirmative action is being used to eliminate the majority gender or race from the workplace. Affirmative action is an important part of achieving equal employment opportunities for everyone in the workforce. The beginning of reverse discrimination into society could be sign that affirmative action is no longer needed in the United States. Diversity education and training is dominant in workplaces today, everywhere you look you can see the focus of diversity, on websites, advertisements , magazines, and television. The removal or altering of affirmative action guidelines could possibly help remove reverse discrimination from our society but I doubt it that would be the end of discrimination. The United States has came all long way since the 1960's but I still think we have a long way to go. Discrimination is not going to go away just by taking away affirmative