Reverse Discrimination

Reverse Discrimination:

A Legal and Ethical Analysis

INTRODUCTION

The issues regarding reverse discrimination have been up for debate since the landmark 1978 Allan Bakke case in which The Supreme Court outlawed the Affirmative Action quota systems as remedial solution to minority based recruiting. However, within such ruling The Supreme Court affirmed racial discretionary systems Affirmative Action as a form of remedy to past discriminations of minority groups. As a result, many similar reverse discrimination claims have brought to question if remedial action plans such as Affirmative Action are in fact remedial, or just a paradox to equal opportunity. In 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission resolved more than twenty thousand race-based charges in violation of the Title VII Civil Rights Act of 1964 (EEOC, 2008).

Under what criteria is reverse discrimination in violation of Title VII? Moreover, in the face of today’s need for diversity, how can corporations avoid legal and ethical violations in the mist of correcting the wrongs or diversify the workplace? As it stands reverse discrimination challenges the theory of “preferential treatment” and Affirmative Action plans under the Fourth tenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause outlined in the Constitution.

BODY

The goal of the research on the topic of reverse discrimination is to analyze a) it origin;

b) legal issues concerning reverse discrimination specifically relating to racial or gender discriminations; c) its legal defenses; and d) the impact remedial plans such as Affirmative Action in relation the theory of equal protection.

The Origin of Reverse Discrimination

Historically, discrimination has been a demographical struggle for equality in areas of employment and education since the end of the Civil War. As relief to blatant discriminating practices, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in which provides protection against discrimination gender, race,...