blic awareness to the racial discrimination issue.
             Many blacks today still feel the effects of racial discrimination. Henry Gates Jr., a black Harvard professor of the Humanities, reveals in his article "Two Nations... Both Black," how racial discrimination still plays a part in society: "We [blacks] are still humiliatingly vulnerable to racism, in the form of random police harassment, individual racial insults from waitresses and attendants in stores, the unwillingness of taxi drivers to pick us up, systematic discrimination by banks and bank loan officers, wage discrimination in the workplace, and our perception of a `glass ceiling' in the corporate world." Affirmative Action was created to give minorities equal educational and employment opportunities. It has helped many black people and other minorities attend institutions of higher education and obtain better job opportunities, but it has failed to reach the goal of alleviating racial discrimination and "level the playing field".
             Racial discrimination is prevalent in the hiring practices used by businesses in America today, the best-qualified applicant applying for a job will not necessarily be the applicant that is hired. All public, private or non-profit businesses with more than 15 employees must comply with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has the authority to prosecute any business for discrimination if the percentage of minorities hired is much lower than the percentage of minorities applying. Supporters of affirmative action insist that blacks are trainable even if they are not the best qualified for the job. In some situations in which blacks are severely underrepresented, meeting a numerical goal may require selecting a specific number of blacks that are "basically qualified" to do the job. Government pressure on business...