o be a program that would hopefully encourage employers to open up the job market to offer more accessibility towards minority groups. Quotas were in no way enforced, and under no circumstances was it initially intended that under-qualified employees were to be hired to fill positions in order to meet these goals, but history would prove to be quite different. During the seventies, Affirmative Action was introduced into politics, where it remains a rampant topic of discussion to this day. In 1998, California representative Frank Riggs introduced an amendment to do away with Affirmative Action, counting on the backing of J.C. Watts, the only African American Republican Representative, but Watts quickly took the opposite side, and the bill died in congress. In 1996 California adopted the controversial Proposition 209, which abolished state-wide adherence to affirmative action. Just a few days ago, the State Court of Appeals may have offered some finality to the Proposition by unanimously denied state agencies the tools necessary to identify and change racially skewed hiring patterns. Washington state also followed in suit with the Initiative-200 which was voted into place by a 58% majority of the public in November 1998. This bill, in much the same way as Proposition 900, banned all Affirmative Action measures in the state for a more non-discriminatory stance. Politics at both the state and federal level have been at ends over the methods in which to deal with this topic. The democrats are predominately for and the Republicans stand arbitrarily against. As for now, the resolve lies within the individual states as to what will become of this law. At a more personal level, Affirmative Action is becoming a hindrance and is beginning to reverse the tables. Guadalupe Quintanilla, the assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs for the University of Houston, stated, "Affirmative action has been distorted and abused. We need to take...
