HUMAN RESOURCE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

HUMAN RESOURCE - Essay Example It is far too easy to hide discriminatory practices when subjective measures are used. Affirmative action was certainly needed to right the wrongs committed prior to the Civil Rights Era. Quotas, set-asides, and racial balance can only be justified in this context. In the wake of the Jim Crow Era, the American people did not have the patience to let racism die a slow death over several generations. Allowing subtle forms of racism to persist may have prolonged discriminatory practices indefinitely. While there are still people that maintain bigoted ways of thinking, I think we have come to a point were affirmative action does more harm than good. However, the only way to know for sure would be to end affirmative action and to monitor the consequences. It is perhaps for this reason that the Supreme Court has chosen to err on the side of caution and allow some affirmative action policies to be maintained for at least the next 25 years. The blatant use of quotas has been struck down, but this hasnt protected corporations and institutions from lawsuits. Just as the prohibition of discrimination has resulted in more subtle forms of discrimination, the prohibition of quotas has resulted in more subtle forms of affirmative action. Quotas will not go away until racial imbalance cannot be used as evidence of discrimination. The problem with quotas is that racial imbalance is not just the product of discrimination. There are other confounding variables aside from race. It has become apparent that socioeconomic status is a better predictor of academic aptitude. Although there are correlations between socioeconomic status and race, it is not right to perpetuate a system where performance is not rewarded. The initial effect of affirmative action was to challenge bigoted ways of thinking. Now that those deeply ingrained beliefs have been challenged and adjusted to reality, the persistence

Genocide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Genocide - Essay Example This document distinguishes several types of perpetrators and their involvement in genocide through examples. It also defines the content of the crime according to the international law and the convention towards the prevention and punishment of genocide. Finally, the different kinds of genocide based on their intent as retributive, cultural, latent, optimal, and utilitarian are discussed. Most people in the society tend to use the general concepts such as mass murder and massacre, while referring to genocide. They may also associate the delivery of justice with the local governments after the crime, since they have no idea of the international protection by the law. Genocide is a crime defined in the international criminal law, and is currently handled by the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in the Netherlands at Hague. The ICC aims to protect the potential victims, bring to trial or apprehend suspected perpetrators, while giving justice to the affected in the society. Several international organizations define the crime based on destruction targeting a particular group of people within a domain; however, what distinguishes the crime from others is the motivation behind it. According to Rummel (2002), history shows different situations where people had been murdered under the authority of their rulers and governments, either in war or by strict instructions given to exterminate rebellious groups; even though, legal application of the term ‘Genocide’ came into use first in the indictment of the Nazi war criminals, at Nuremburg tribunal between 1945 and 1946, in association with Raphael Lemkin. Although the ICC is an independent judicial system, it works closely with the United Nations to uphold human rights and campaign against genocide. The crime of genocide is not limited to mass killings but it covers a wide scope. It is defined in the international law in the convention on the prevention and punishment