ver the years is generally considered a negative and socially unfair one. Although the original intention of such programs with regard to minority management was one of an undeniably just nature, my research has clearly indicated that over the years, various legal trends have drastically altered the socio-political implications of affirmative action often creating unfair situations for white males who are not part of the "guaranteed crowd".
             "Managing Diversity" is one of the newest, most politically sound names for any such policies aimed at bringing minorities into the business mainstream through preferential hiring and promotion. Whatever the name, it is apparent that our contemporary society must come to grips with a sobering fact: We are some twenty-five years into a national drive and it has been about fifty years since the government first embraced the idea of giving blacks and other minorities a foothold in white, male-dominated Corporate America, yet the ideal of racial equality remains elusive, and the means of attaining it is increasingly controversial.
             Affirmative action encompasses both race and gender. Indeed women have been among its' greatest beneficiaries but the discussion of race stirs the fiercest emotions. The concept of affirmative action itself remains shrouded in ignorance, mistrust, and political cynicism. According to Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder, "The term conjures up the vilest of connotations making it much like a four letter word". (Fiscus 86).
             It was not always that way, of course. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in employment and ordered that all hiring be "colorblind". Affirmative action, established by a series of Presidential directives going back to Lyndon B. Johnson's in 1965, was intended to socially compensate minorities for past injustices, to overcome continuing discrimination, and ultimately to provide equal job opportunities for whites an...