The essay is about Affirmative Action and If it should be accepted or thrown away with.

More Than Just A Policy

Born of the civil rights movement three decades ago, affirmative action is the nation's most ambitious attempt to reconcile its long history of racial and sexual discrimination. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, stated that "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This statement, made in 1963, leads to my main question: Is affirmative action still necessary in America? Affirmative action is still necessary because American does not have enough racial equality or diversity in the workforce, universities, political institutions, education and many other areas.

Affirmative action is still essential in America because Americans do not have sufficient equality and diversity in the workforce.

English: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin ...

English: Dr. Martin Luther King giving his "I Have...

Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: ...

Many studies show that blacks occupy more low-wage jobs than whites. Blacks and women are paid less for the same job as a white male. Without a policy that holds employers accountable for who they hire the "pledge" to not discriminate is meaningless and there is little doubt that most organizations and employers would revert back to being mostly white. "And that is why we need affirmative action in this country. There is a built-in bias of people who do the hiring, they automatically assume people who look like them are more qualified than people who don't look like them." (Howard Dean)

I believe that he goal of affirmative action in the workforce is to allow "the victims of discriminatory conduct to the position they would have occupied in the absence of that conduct." (Chief Justice William Rehnquist) White males typically earn significantly more than women and minorities.