Do you believe affirmative action is in and of itself discriminatory

The U.S. Department of Labor (n.d.) describes affirmative action as shown below:
For federal contractors and subcontractors, affirmative action must be taken by covered employers to recruit and advance qualified minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and covered veterans. Affirmative actions include training programs, outreach efforts, and other positive steps. These procedures should be incorporated into the company’s written personnel policies. Employers with written affirmative action programs must implement them, keep them on file and update them annually. (para. 1)

Do you believe affirmative action is in and of itself discriminatory, that is to say, discriminates against qualified non-minorities in favor of minorities? Why, or why not?

Reference

U.S. Department of Labor. (n.d.). Affirmative action. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/hiring/affirmativeact.htm

Response should be min 250

Please respond to the below response with a min of 250 words

I do not believe in and of itself that affirmative action is discriminatory.  I do believe that if these laws were not in place, minorities would continue to be discriminated in the work place.  On the other hand, this law can be discriminatory if the employer is only hiring minorities to fill a quota.  I hope to think that since this law has been put in place employers would not continue this practice.  I know from experience the flip side of this law.  When it first came out I was in the mortgage business.  After being laid off for a couple of months I went out to get another job.  I went on the job interview, everything went well and at the end the person wanting to hire me stated that she was very sorry but had to hire a minority instead of me because there was a new law in place saying they had to meet a certain quota. She informed me that the next person she hired had to be a minority even if they were qualified for the job or not.   I came away from that interview shocked to say the least.  I was qualified for this job, the person loved me and said she would love to have me work there but she was sorry there was nothing she could do.  This is only my personal experience with this but does not mean that this law is discriminatory in and of itself.  The law does good for those who would normally be looked over because they are minorities.