Martin Luther King said more than forty years ago “Don’t judge a man by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.” Martin Luther King being the great man he was, was seeking equality for all people. He was a man of the cloth and a man who was trying to end racial prejudice, and he was killed in trying to do so. Before affirmative action came into being, Martin Luther King knew exactly what he was talking about and yes he was trying to get people to understand that they should stop the racial injustice that was going on in America, by allowing people to see that African- Americans should not be judged by their skin color.

But what Martin Luther King said many years ago, in of his greatness, his leadership qualities and his ability to stand up for equal rights was that he was trying to tell everyone that people should be judged by what is on the iniside; how good a person is, if they have morals, and ethics, how intelligent a person is, not by the color of their skin. When affirmative action came along, government entities were just trying to equalize employment by placing minority people in jobs.

The Wikipedia defintion of affirmative action goes like this:
Affirmative action describes many policies aimed at historically socio-politically non-dominant group of minority men and women of all racial groups intended to promote its access to education and employment. The motivation behind affirmative action is to redress the negative effects of actual or perceived past of current discrimination that is regarded as unfair by relevant legislative bodies.

There are positive and negative effects of affirmative action. When Martin Luther King was alive he was trying to tell everyone no matter what the color of their skin, that they should not be judged by the color of their skin. People should be judged by what they have inside. But, by having affirmative action in place that is completely the opposite of what he intended. People are actually being judged by their skin color and being place in jobs and higher places of learning due to their skin color, and their ethnic background.

What is wrong with that, is people who are not completely qualified for the job, or that higher place of learning, are being placed into certain jobs. A more qualified applicant is sometimes overlooked for the position and the job is actually performed by someone who may or may not be qualified for the job. Sometimes when this occurs the person does not do a great job in that position and flounders and the business can flounder due to an applicant not being suited to that position.

Affirmative action is actually striving for the opposite of what Martin Luther King was trying to realize. He was trying to create equality for all men. And with people being placed in employment in institutions and government positions and places of higher learning, and college students going to college, his goals are not being achieved. Reverend King’s goals are being undermined. The person being placed into the job, or the college is still getting the job or college admittance due to the color of their skin, or because they are poor, or a minority.

The person is not being given due justice because they are not being judged on their abiltiy to do the job or have the academic qualifications to go to the college in the first place. It is very much like we have turned everything around in our attempts to try to bring equality to all of mankind.

Affirmative action is also not fair, and I know I sound like a little kid on the playground here, but its not fair to the person who was qualified for the position no matter what his minority affiliation, color of his skin, his ethnic, or religious beliefs. I also realize I’m sounding like Pollyanna here but, a person who is qualified for the position should be hired for the position, not someone who may not be able to do the job.

And yes, I know that people are hired for jobs due to the “good old boys network”, and that people are hired because they are friends or relatives of someone else, but that practice should be stopped also. And the person who can do the best job possible should receive the job, so that the company can thrive not diminish.

Affirmative action is actually reverse discrimination against the person who is qualified for the position or the college admittance program in the first place. Martin Luther King was trying to seek equality for African- Americans based on a person’s inner-goodness, not based on what we see on the outside. Maybe we should just start judging a job applicant on how well a job he can perform, not by the color of his skin.