Affirmative Action

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Affirmative action means giving someone a preference or advantage based on the color of his skin, or gender, and often for political motivation. Quotas are an extreme form of affirmative action.

The original concept of affirmative action, when introduced by the Johnson administration, was that it is desirable to not merely act on non-discrimination passively (i.e., saying "this job is open to any applicant", but then making no efforts to find minority applicants), but should also be done affirmatively, by taking definite actions to find applicants from minorities.

This would be, in its way, admirable. However, in current use, affirmative action goes beyond this, often mandating the use of quotas for setting aside jobs or a portion of college entrance positions for each minority (including also some so-called minorities that are actually majorities).

  • The worst feature of such programs is that they are presented to the public as if they were "equal opportunity" programs when they are patently aimed at "equal outcomes" regardless of the merits and abilities of job applicants. [1]


In effect, this means selecting applicants by the color of their skin, precisely what the original concept of non-discrimination forbids. This is sometimes called "reverse discrimination," although this term is rather contradictory - discrimination remains discrimination.

Regents v. Bakke effectively outlawed quotas but allowed affirmative action as long as there are considerations other than race. This is sometimes called reverse discrimination.

Dinesh D'Souza wrote:

Many whites have become increasingly scornful of black demands, and vehemently reject racial preferences. Most blacks, by contrast, support affirmative action as indispensable to fighting the enduring effects of white racism.[1]

John H. McWhorter wrote:

For most black Americans, the rapid increase of the black middle class, of interracial relationships and marriages, and of blacks in prestigious positions has no bearing on the real state of black America. Further, they believe, whites’ inability to grasp the unmistakable reality of oppression is itself proof of racism, while blacks who question that reality are self-deluded. [2]

On August 28, 2007 the United States Commission on Civil Rights released a report that determined that affirmative action can be harmful to minority law school students due to the fact that students admitted through affirmative action programs are more likely to be unprepared and are thus being set up for failure.[2]

Most recently, the Justice Department was found to be engaging in affirmative-action-style hiring practices for conservatives. Instead of taking the best candidates for various jobs and internships, Republican appointees in the Department had been found to have commandeered the hiring process and were denying jobs to most qualified people who were or were thought to be liberal and giving jobs to conservatives who were less qualified.

See Also

References

  1. The End of Racism: The White Man's Burden by Dinesh D'Souza
  2. U.S. Civil Rights Commission Warns That Affirmative Action Might Harm Minority Law Students