Herman Belz’s stance on the issue of affirmative action suggests that he is
against selective employment. He discusses both sides of the issue, therefore
making his argument fairer. He backs up his thoughts by talking with various
professionals in the industry of affirmative action. He begins by talking about
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how it pretty much preached indifference
throughout the private employment workplace. He talks about how Title VII states
that groups under law cannot be discriminated against, but individuals can. It
seemed the law protected minorities in a whole but when individuals were dealt
with the law was not the same. His next point that he brings up deals with
disparate impact discrimination meaning “the unintentional exclusion of blacks
from jobs constituted discrimination.” After this law was implemented
employers needed to have a certain amount of spots available for minorities or
it was considered illegal. Belz than argues that this is reverse discrimination
because if a white person is more qualified than a black person for the job, why
should the black person receive the job solely because he is black. With this
idea being implemented an employer has a lot of stress on him/her because he
might have a great number of white workers, but now the law requires him to hire
minorities, which he does not need currently because his business is doing just
fine. Belz’s next point states how the constitution says equal protection to
all people no matter what color or religion they are. Than basically he says
that blacks now have a law protecting them from the original constitution, which
is not fair because all people should be considered equal under the
constitution. Another point made by Belz is when he says that people should not
assume that if there was no discrimination that their would not be equal number
of minorities in the workplace. Belz feels that employment should be offered to
the most qualified individuals and not to individuals of minorities. The final
point made by Belz is that when a minority receives help from affirmative action
he/she is not actually receiving the job from their skill level but solely
because of their race. Harvey Mansfield says that individuals of minorities are
not able to help themselves so basically they require assistance from the
government. Belz believes that the government should re-think the affirmative
action program and start to the back the innate rights of the people.