A FEW KIND WORDS FOR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION MartinHosea Martin's article on affirmative action aims to defend the practice of hiring people not just on their qualifications but by their race as well. He does so by using his own experience in the work place along with some personal, unsupported opinions of his own regarding hiring practices and education. Martin also attempts to defend affirmative action programs as being fair and non-discriminatory by emphasizing that "every single one of us...had been hired for reasons beyond our being able to do our jobs." (Martin qtd. in Hicks, 219).Martin begins by trying to explain how no one is actually hired on their qualifications in this "meritocracy". Everyone has an unfair advantage in some way. This is his own personal opinion on how and why certain people are hired. His mediocre attempt to justify the hiring of a person of race over that of a truly qualified person is based on his perception that "just about everybody...got special consideration for one reason or another"(220). He also makes reference to the "right" schools. If the "right" school means picking a white-Anglo Harvard graduate with a Ph. D. over an African-American University of Florida graduate holding the same degree then the distinction between the two candidates is obvious. People who want to succeed at the highest levels in our society work hard their entire lives to get into the "right"schools. This gives them an advantage over others not because of the color of their skin, but because they have shown the willingness and aptitude to get ahead. They have already proven their worth.Ellison 2Martin uses, as a means to support his argument of unfair advantages, his experience in the Army as a clerk wherein he typed a series of application letters for an officer who was being discharged. He asserted that the officer did not receive a job on the basis of his qualifications but on the fact that he belonged to a certain fraternit...
