Ryan Davis
English Comp 123
ERAU

What was it like before "Equal Opportunity" was mandated and how effective is it?
It is an interesting thought, and idea to grasp how exactly society functioned before there were equal opportunity laws being implemented across organizations, and workplaces. Furthermore, how exactly these changes were made, and how effective are they? Many people to this day are still very much prejudice towards certain types of races, groups, sexual preferences, sex, size, etc. So to fathom being in a society where it is essentially a "free for all" towards being prejudice, or genuinely prejudice towards these types of groups is very hard to imagine.
Prior to doing any definite research, I thought I had a pretty clear idea on how exactly equal opportunity could both benefit, and hurt today’s workplace. As I was reading “Advantages & Disadvantages of Equal Opportunity Employment” (Casey Reader) a short online article by Casey Reader, he mentions in a paragraph about how government interaction in private companies can actually hurt them. Many times, companies with special skill requirements can unintentionally decrease diversity among their hiring processes. With government interference forcing them to diversify their well running operations, and cause disruptions in their market. After coming to this realization, it got me thinking if society was truly suffering, or operating smoothly without EO.
Another article I read by “Phil for Humanity” (Phil B) mentions how many organizations only enforce equal opportunity to prevent any type of affirmative action lawsuits, and enforce the law for all the wrong reasons. This phrase got me thinking how vague, and “grey” the whole equal opportunity law actually can be. With the majority of sources, and organizations favoring, and praising the benefits of the law, it is becoming clearer to see all the flaws, and shady areas behind it.
Thereafter I read an article pertaining to the events prior to mandating equal opportunity by a .gov website, and how it actually used to be. The article elaborates on how public brutality against minorities, and other groups were being carried out by law enforcement with no intervention. The “Civil Rights Act” was also one of the outcomes mandated by Kennedy to alleviate these types of problems in society. This fact is definitely true in greatly improving, and minimizing discrimination brutality. Clearly there are also benefits to implementing mandated laws towards equality.
I then found a scholarly article “Equal Opportunity Law, and The Construction of Internal Labor Markets (JW Meyer) that also brought up another interesting point on pre equal opportunity days. Meyer mentions in page 3 that many companies back then were very strict, and tight with internal careerism, work ethics, and promoting. I then began to think how implementing EO in all these companies, virtually forcing them to hire an entirely different caliber of people could throw off their company stability.
Shortly after, I found another article from “civilright.org” elaborating on the reasoning, and success of implementing equal opportunity, and much of it makes great sense. Despite statistics, many different types of people with different preferences, goals, colors, and views contrary to stereotypes are capable of being very proficient, and able to compete with the stereotypical successful American image. President Johnson approved the law shortly after Kennedy was shot, and lost his work towards resolving discrimination. His goals were to provide opportunities to a new demographic.
Shortly after this, I stumbled upon a newspaper article that gave a more specific mandate for equal opportunity. The “Ocala Star Banner” shared how all Governments in society will no longer differentiate between men, and women. These equality rights for women meant that no woman will be denied, or abridged by state within the USA. During this period of time, women had little to no rights, or