The Clinton administration's opposition to the California civil rights initiative argues for affirmative action status quo

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C. Sharf
2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 6-7
Author(s):  
Katie Rose Guest Pryal

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor G Gates ◽  
Margery C Saunders

Workers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-identified have always been a part of the workplace in the United States, yet there has been a lack of awareness about how to advocate for the needs of these people. This lack of awareness was challenged by Congresswoman Bella Abzug. Abzug’s campaign for creating an equal working environment for sexual minorities initiated gradual changes in the public discourse concerning workplace and other broad equality measures for these communities. To frame these gradual transformations within a historical context, we use Lewin’s force field analysis framework to examine the change efforts of Abzug. Abzug had beginning success in thawing the status quo yet her visions for equality for LGBTQ people have yet to be realized. Using Abzug’s social action as an example, this article concludes that allies must continue to challenge societal oppression, power, and privilege and to demand civil rights protections for LGBTQ individuals.


Author(s):  
Eric Schickler

This chapter examines the status quo before the start of the civil rights realignment, showing that civil rights was simply not viewed as part of the standard “liberal program” as of the early 1930s. Although African Americans were vocal in attacking Franklin D. Roosevelt's weak civil rights record, they were largely alone. When whites on the left pushed Roosevelt to be a more forthright liberal or progressive, they criticized him for inadequate support for labor, weak business regulation, and insufficient recovery spending—but not for his failure to back civil rights. At this early stage, the “enemies” of a liberal Democratic Party generally were not identified with the South but instead were probusiness Democrats from the Northeast, associated with Al Smith of New York. Economic questions were the key battleground in the eyes of white liberals, and civil rights did not figure in these debates.


2020 ◽  
pp. 210-236
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Delton

This chapter examines the overlap between African Americans' demands for jobs and conservatives' push for “right to work” laws. While compulsory union dues were very different from unions' exclusion of blacks, both movements targeted historically white unions and shared a language of workplace “rights.” Conservative “right to work” activists adopted the tactics of the civil rights movement and aligned themselves with blacks against exclusionary unions. Although this strategy failed to attract African Americans, it called attention to unions' historic and ongoing racism in a way that eventually divided the labor–liberal coalition. This dynamic is key to understanding the National Association of Manufacturers' complicated support for civil rights, equal opportunity, and affirmative action.


Outsiders ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 111-134
Author(s):  
Zachary Kramer

Accommodations are a common feature of life, but a vexing problem in civil rights law. To accommodate is to disrupt the status quo, to regard another, to recognize one’s needs and humanity. Accommodations can be a powerful thing. Even brief accommodations are an exchange of information, which become crucial experiences, as they force us to reckon with a harsh truth: The idea that all people are created equal is a legal command, not a practical description. We all have different needs and capabilities, different beliefs and wants. We accommodate not to erase these differences but to respect them. As a vehicle to realize our ambitions, and a functional means to make equality real for everyone in need of respect, accommodations are a way to bring outsiders in. As a result, accommodation is the antidote to modern discrimination. As we turn inward, as individuality becomes the common experience, accommodation is the right tool for our time. It is a means of making meaningful change.


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