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Affirmative Action is a federal program that when it was created may have had some good intentions, but has since been long overdue to be abolished. The federal government started the Affirmative Action program in order to force diversity in the work place, especially in places where discrimination and bigotry were rampant. Affirmative Action states that a certain percentage or number of minority employees must be hired in businesses. Any business that wants to do business with the federal government could not win a contract unless they met the quotas set in Affirmative Action.

The program was originally designed to target the African American population and while Affimative Action may guarantee jobs for a people who have long been denied employment simply due to the colour of their skin, more often than not it spawns even larger issues than employment. By forcing an employer to hire someone merely to fulfill a quota even if that person is not qualified for the job creates numerous problems. When a person is hired who is not qualified then extra money, sometimes at the expense of the taxpayer, is required for training. Having an unqualified person in a skilled job position can cause some serious issues regarding work safety. And forcing an employer to hire a non-qualified person breeds resentment among the employees and the population in general. When a minority person is hired simply to fill a quota over a qualified person can foster issues of racial bigotry and further discrimination that are a detriment to everyone.

For the person who knows that he or she can get a job simply because they fit into a certain category leads to issues of self respect and laziness. Knowing that a person can get a job because they fill a quota has led to a general belief that ALL people of that particular class are lazy, uneducated, dumb. etc. etc.; even though that is not the case it is human nature to lump all people of a certain group together and it only takes one bad egg to spoil the whole bunch. How can a person honestly have any self respect and self esteem when they know that they got a job only because they filled a quota and not because they actually earned the job? When it comes to hiring a person for a job the ONLY things that should be considered are the qualifications for the job. Affirmative Action has outlived its usefullness and shoud be abolished.

Learn more about this author, Sherrill Fulghum.
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