AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

In America, Affirmative Action was a product of the Great Society policies of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. It was first codified into law under a series of Executive Orders (not approved by Congress, in other words), which stated that munitions manufacturers including private firms doing business with the federal government should "take affirmative action" in hiring minorities - at the time defined almost solely as African Americans. As the Vietnam War dragged on under President Richard Milhous Nixon, Affirmative Action became part of a wider government program to bribe inner city blacks to get with the program and support their government. Of course, Affirmative Action, welfare (started under FDR in the 1930s) and other government handouts did nothing to increase the love that black people had for the federal government. By 1978 liberal activism was under attack. President Jimmy Carter had expanded Johnson's liberal social programs to their ultimate extreme, and white, middle class Americans began to look toward the Republican Party and their rising star, Ronald Reagan, for new political direction. That same year, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against quotas for the first time in the landmark California Board of Regents vs. Allan Bakke decision. However, Affirmative Action was far from dead and buried. Today Affirmative Action remains rooted in American policy, although most Americans including many African-Americans find Affirmative Action outmoded for the much less racist atmosphere of the 21st Century. Inexplicably Affirmative Action still exists, even after the election of Barack Obama.