Question

PLEASE HELP WITH A PEER RESPONSE TO THE POST BELOW.

Understanding Affirmative Action Should the personnel director be worried? Why or why not? Although the personnel director of East High School thinks she is in big trouble because of the low percentage of Hispanics working at the high school versus the percentage of the residents who are Hispanic. The personnel director is concerned that this is discrimination. However, after reading the scenario and looking at the flowchart, the personnel director should not be worried. According to the flowchart, there is no history of discrimination, however there is still a legal plan put into place and reading for action if needed to prevent against any future discrimination. Currently at Eats High School, the personnel director has 25 percent Hispanics out of the qualified 28 percent working as employees for the high school. The plan of action benefits victims of discrimination but also ensures that 40 percent of new hires will be Hispanic. According to the flowchart, the area population was used to establish goals. However, now the personnel director is facing a problem when denying a fully qualified White individual to hire a Hispanic individual. This is where issues could come into play in my opinion because now the personnel director is trying to meet her percentage hiring on Hispanic individuals, but while doing that she is denying individuals that are not Hispanic and in some cases are more qualified. Currently there is no ending point of the plan and the plan is considered legal.

connor

Answer 1

While there's nothing wrong with Affirmative Action, the goal should be to provide equality of opportunity instead of equality of outcomes. So I don't think that enforcing a KPI that requires the school to ensure that 40% of the new hires are Hispanic would be helpful for the Hispanic community or the school. Another reason being, Whites and Hispanics are not the only ethnic groups in the United States, there are also Black, Asians, Pacific Islanders & Europeans. So while a 40% hiring standard may seem reasonable now, we should ask ourselves how will the town and neighborhood look 10 - 15 years from now. There will be a change in demographics and it's essential that opportunities are kept open for all ethnic groups. While the plan is perfectly legal and it's controversial to voice our opinions against the same, one way to making your case against this would be to focus on that fact that diversity needs to work for everyone, not just one or two groups. This would mean leaving the door open for people of all ethnic backgrounds, classes & culture. You can't fight a move to increase inclusion with an argument against inclusion, on the contrary, the best way to make your case against this could be to argue for inclusivity for everyone.