Q22

[onguyen228]

Could someone explain why (C) is incorrect?

[tara_amber1]

I also had trouble with this question. It's confusing because the first sentence of the first paragraph mentions "attemps to eliminate racial discrimination in employment and wages: the United States Congress enacted Title VII..." I couldn't pinpoint where (E) came from...

[christine.defenbaugh]

Thanks for posting, onguyen228 and tara_amber1!

First, great job on targeting Paragraph 1 in your search for support for the right answer, tara_amber1! That's exactly where we need to look. And conveniently, the first sentence is all about Title VII, while the second sentence is all about the Executive Order. That separation will make our task a bit easier!

However, notice that the first sentence has some text before the colon, and this text could arguably apply to BOTH Title VII and the Executive Order - ".....began attempts to eliminate racial discrimination in employment and wages:". Title VII (1964) was the beginning, but the Executive Order (1965) continues the same goal!

However, there's a more significant problem with (C) - notice that the above quote contains a very important word: attempts. This does not necessarily mean that either Title VII or the Executive Order were actually successful at eradicating discriminatory disparities, just that they tried! Unfortunately, neither of these items were able to end racist practices in their entirety.

So, where does (E) come from? Notice that Title VII prohibits employers - ALL employers - from making racially based employment decisions. The Executive Order, on the other hand, only prohibits discrimination by government contractors. Since 'all employers' is a wider category than 'government contractors', we can support (E)!

Notice that this answer was not explicitly stated word for word in the text. Instead, we had to take a bit of information from two different sentences and synthesize it to understand the difference between Title VII and the Executive Order.

Let's take a brief look at the remaining incorrect answers:

(A) The passage does not say that Title VII monitors employers. The Executive Order emphasized monitoring.

(B) Again, this applies to the Executive Order, not Title VII.

(D) Neither Title VII nor the Executive Order related to minority representation in government - and only the Executive Order addressed minority representation in government contractors' work forces.

Let me know if this clears up your questions on this!