Rose-Marie Chaperon

Is Affirmative Action Still Necessary



Posted: Wednesday, February 23, 2011

by Rose-Marie Chaperon
Chaperon Consulting, LLC

Is affirmative action still necessary? The policy was first introduced by President Lyndon B. Johnson as a sort of measure to try and “right the wrongs” of the past. It was designed to level the playing field in areas such as education and employment for underrepresented minorities and women who had suffered from years of injustices. The result over the years was more diversity in all areas involved and more opportunities for the aforementioned groups.

As of January 1, 1978 the U.S. Civil Service Commission duties were placed under jurisdiction of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) (Elson, 2003). I were appointed head of the EEOC, the policy I would implement to reduce ethnic strife in the United States would be to end the racial classification on the EEOC forms. Although the racial classification was designed to turn the classification to the advantage of those minorities who previously had suffered from its imposition and to promote equal hiring opportunities for all ethnic backgrounds, it has also denied employment opportunities for minorities. When an applicant applies for a position, the form asked them to voluntarily answer questions about their ethnicity

Some may wonder if affirmative action is till necessary. The controversial issue of Affirmative Action (AA) was in the news a few years ago. A group of mostly white firefighters from Connecticut won a case against their city which had adopted a system of promotion based on race. The case attracted attention especially on conservative media outlets. Although that decision doesn’t end affirmative action altogether, it probably again brought up the question of whether it is still necessary today (Baker, 2009).

At the beginning of this paper, I selfishly was an opponent of affirmative action, now come to think of it; affirmative action is beneficial to all minorities. I grew up in a country where advancement (in school at least) was based on merit alone, but we didn’t have the same historical legacy as that of the United States. Some groups here, especially the darker skinned, have long faced inequality, racism, and discrimination, all of which combined to prevent them from being on equal standing with the mainstream society today. Therefore, I feel it is important to have programs in place that can correct that situation. Opponents believe that the time has come to end them, but I don’t think 40 plus years of the policy can erase 400 plus years of injustice (in the case of blacks). It is obvious today that we haven’t achieved that level playing field yet, and so AA should remain .
Rose-Marie Chaperon also works as a Director of Revenue Cycle for healthcare operations. Rose-Marie's experience is process improvement and redesigning patient access and patient financial services areas. Rose Marie is an exceptional A/R guru and has held many Business Office and Patient Financial Services positions throughout her twenty-year tenure in revenue cycle. She is a very proactive leader and the kind of person who can direct a group of people towards their goals. Rose Marie has experience with a variety of software systems and led three hospitals through a system conversion during her assignments there. Rose-Marie is a Certified Healthcare Access Manager (CHAM). Rose-Marie can be reached via e-mail: rosechaperon@hotmail.com or rchaperon@shenahaiti.org

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