Affirmative action originally intended for businesses and colleges to actively seek equally qualified individuals who are in a minority group, including women. In other words, individuals with equal abilities should have equal opportunities. This sounds appropriate and is something we want our federal government to enforce. The purposes and intents of affirmative action were and are reasonable to redress discriminatory hiring and university admission practices. But, as with all good intentions, the results have been mixed. The idea that standards and qualifications were "lowered" so that minorities and women could be hired is ludicrous.

You know this nation's racial history is what it is. There's no getting around it. Habits, practices & mindsets die hard. And believe it or not that still holds true to this day. We're only 150 years if that removed from slavery. But then think of all the legislation, and artificial wharfs & sandbars that were place in our way to keep us from sharing in the American dream. Again.....I say, had this nation addressed its race issue at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, where would we be as a nation? For example, the Supreme Court of 1873 said that black people could sleep, eat and go anywhere they wanted. The Supreme Court of 1883 said, "No...they can't" and declared the previous ruling unconstitutional. We, as a nation, went backwards as oppose to moving forward. Then, 81 years later...we get the Voting Rights Act of 1964. Then..in the late 60's and 70's we start to integrate schools & in some cases the workplace. All that human and intellectual capital.....WASTED...on both sides!!!


atp