"Bush Opposes Diversity Policy at University" by By Edwin Chen and Nick Anderson, L.
In March l961, less than two months after assuming office, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925 which established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Its mission was to end discrimination in employment by the government and its contractors. "Affirmative action was created to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." When we examine the social inequality of Race, we begin to see the framework for a system that continues to struggle with class division, ethnic status and racism. Affirmative action is the most ambitious attempt to readdress the United States" long history of racial discrimination. .
President Bush on Wednesday denounced as "divisive, unfair" and unconstitutional a University of Michigan affirmative action program that favors blacks and Latinos and he directed his administration to join the legal case against the school's admissions policy. With his decision, Bush weighed in on one of the most important affirmative action cases to reach the Supreme Court in a generation. The Supreme Court has been moving gradually toward outlawing "race-conscious" decision-making by government officials. The court has not ruled directly on affirmative action in college admissions since the Allan Bakke case of 1978.
Over the past 40 years Affirmative Action has become a widely debated topic and has been expanded to include various groups. The issue has increased awareness of unfair practices and prejudice within various social institutions. This attempt to level the playing field and reestablish constitutional rights was a step in the right direction, but the issue itself seemly gets lost in a system that is slow to bring about change. Originally designed to give ethnic minorities a better opportunity in a white dominated world the issue has become a beacon for any group discriminated against on the basis of gender, age or religious affiliation.