Do We Still Need Affirmative Action in this Modern Day and Age?

Absolutely, and if people don't understand why, it's likely that they haven't looked into post reconstruction era American society for blacks.

Absolutely in regards to it being absolutely necessary to have affirmative action.

Essentially, coming from an affluent family, if I struggled in school, my parents could hire a tutor to help me. If a black student who has no father around and her mother is addicted to crack is working 2 jobs just trying to support her younger sibblings, she is LESS likely to pull off the same grade in school that I am.

So this white male who is not benefitted by affirmative action (and has to compete against it) DOES INDEED SUPPORT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION!

Affirmative action involves sex as well as race. Unless you're an older woman you may not realize how much women were discriminated against in terms of jobs and salaries. Of course we needed it and still do.

I'm confused, too. I agree with both sides.

I think society would be better off if everyone were judged according to their abilities regardless of sex, race, religion,etc. But i don't think that will ever happen.

We still need affirmative action, but it would be a good idea to have an "exit plan" saying under what conditions it should be ended. Greater equality of opportunity for rich and poor is one condition that would make it easier to end affirmative action. Better schooling for all, from Head Start through K-12 through higher education would alleviate a lot of the "locked in" disadvantages that history has caused many African Americans to suffer from.

I saw discrimination in college. As I was about to graduate with my teaching degree, a man walked the halls looking for a black woman to give a job to. He needed to fill a quota. He hired a black woman who could barely read no less write because she was black and his school needed to fill a quota. There were much better candidates by far. Here, we have affirmative action in action. What's going to happen to all her students who are taught by a woman who was a known cheat? I knew of better black candidates, but all he wanted was to make his quota. No need to bother with what was best for his students. I got a job, but at a much lower pay. I graduated Summa Cum Laude and because I was a 40 year old woman I couldn't get the high dollar jobs. Now, how's all that for discrimination? Reversed or otherwise, discrimination is wrong. Two wrong do not a right make.

After all these years why can't we get equal education right?

I've worked a job where quotas needed filled and at times they were obviously only interested in black applicants. We who were already in would joke (even the blacks - we joked about EVERYTHING !!!) "Oh they won't get it, they're white." Or, "She'll get it, she's black" - we were that blatant in our cynical humor. But is that sort of blatant picking and choosing trying to make up for a past time (not too long ago) when well qualified blacks were instantly dismissed for the color of their skin?

Is tit for tat fair? If a white cries about it, the black person who gets in, instead, can just say a big loud mocking BOO HOO !!!

(And the minorities I knew at the university acted FAR MORE disciplined than the whites I knew there, by far. For the whites it was mostly PARTY SCHOOL with a carefree sense of entitlement !!!)

Affirmative action is not the same thing as a quota system (although it was in the past).

I am a white woman and I am sorry to say afirmative action has done nothing for me at all. I worked in a mans world for over twenty years. I had to work twice as hard and made less than any man in the place. When I complained I was just a disgruntaled employee or a cry baby woman.

I have lost jobs to white men as well as women. I do not think that anyone white, black, yellow or sky blue pink should get a job unless they are qualified and thanks to affirmative action this is not the case.

I am find with promoting people due to merrit not on the basis of color. Half your illegals are in jobs because companies have to fill quotas first. If a company doesn't hire and promote enough black then you have Jesse Jackson and the other one organizing pickets and on television telling the world how terrible this company is. I am sorry but I have seen more discrimination against whites in the last few years than black. The other thing is I have a daughter who wants to go to college. I can not afford to send her to college. There is no African American or Negro college fund that is helping me get her into school. There is no government program that she qualifies for. I am sorry if I sound racist because I am not. I have black friends. I am just tired of hereing how bad blacks or Aftican Americans have it. They have access to more grants and government money to go to college than a white person. They are given more oportunities in the work place because of their color. I had a girlfriend who turned down a job at a big company because she found out she was hired just because of the color of her skin. Eve said she did not want no government hand out she wanted it on her own. This woman did take a lesser job but worked her way up the corporate ladder. I could not be proud of her. As long as business's have to hire who the government tells them to and as long as businesses have to worry about being sued and fined they will keep on hiring by color not qualifications. This is just my opinion.

I was hired by a principal who was looking for a non-minority because she had filled her quota. That was unfortunate for the minority candidates. It is those types of systems that I am against. As far as doing things to make education more available - I'm for it.

Affirmative action's purpose is being served daily and will need to do so long into the future.

I'm like Bradley, I have seen too many qualified people passed by because they weren't a minority. It has come to this , the real minority is the middle aged white man.

Can't we all just be judged on our merits! What a novel approach!

It really hacks me off when someone who is so obviously better qualified for a position is passed over because of having a quota to fill. I have worked in two companies that have done this (not to me) and have seen it repeatedly. People absolutely should be judged by their own skills, REGARDLESS of race. It's just like forced busing (bussing). It's "contrived democracy", and it never works.

I'm thinking the final results are not in yet.

I always tell my mentees...affirmative action may get you in the door but performance will keep the door open for others to come behind you.

Personally, my life would have turned out so very different without affirmative action.

There were older and mature white men who were seeking truth in their lives who patiently guided me as mentors and advisors...they were placed in my life initially due to one or another proactive affirmative action program put in place to level the playing field in the various arenas I was trailblazing (ex. banking/consulting/pharmaceuticals/entrepreneurship).

These men would not have really done this on their own because they all confided in me once very comfortable over time that they had NEVER interacted with a young black female before let alone took an active role in professionally developing one to succeed. They opened so many doors and shed so much light on the old boys network and how things really get done that I am truly forever grateful for the exposure.

Without affirmative action, I would probably set my sights so low in life that I would be one of those horrific statistics that people are always quoting. Where I grew up, achievement was a bad word.

My white male mentors all confided to me that through my eyes they saw a different world that also enriched their lives and appreciation for what they had always simply took for granted. One day there may not be a need for affirmative action because we will all realize that deep down we all come from one another.

Until the hatred and biased views and discriminatory and downright ignorance is erased, I believe that it is necessary and important.

If one ever doubts the need for affirmative actions in the workplace or in society, ask yourself is nepotism or cronyism ever going to go away? Why or why not?

The answer to those questions should begin one on a search for the truth.

It seems to me that with Barak Obama winning or even losing the Presidential election after having come this close that there actually IS NO LIMIT to what a black person can achieve in this country. Therefore I think that affirmative action is no longer necessary and actually is, in effect, "reverse discrimination".