AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action

Although there is no universally agreed upon definition of affirmative action, the phrase usually refers to policies aimed at ensuring that members of historically disadvantaged groups are among those selected for competitively awarded benefits, such as college or university admission, employment, and government contracts. Affirmative action originated during the civil rights movement in the United States as a policy to end discrimination against African Americans. Since then, other groups have been targeted to benefit from affirmative action, such as women, Native Americans, Hispanics, and some other immigrant groups. Always controversial, affirmative action polices have been accompanied by philosophical, legal, and political battles that largely have developed into a stalemate.

The origins of affirmative action lie in a 1965 executive order issued by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson that required federal contractors to develop policies to combat discrimination. Since this order, several U.S. policies and laws have encouraged or required corporations and other institutions to advertise jobs fairly and to promote the hiring and promotion of members of groups formerly discriminated, most notably women and minority ethnic groups. Implementation of both the letter and the spirit of these federal requirements has often involved employment goals and targeted employment outcomes intended to eliminate the vestiges of discrimination. These goals and policies are the core of affirmative action.

Target goals, timetables, and quotas were originally initiated to ensure more equitable opportunities by counterbalancing apparently intractable prejudice and systemic favoritism. Over the years, many policies initiated with these lofty ambitions were criticized on grounds that they establish quotas that unjustifiably elevate the opportunities of members of targeted groups, discriminate against equally qualified or even more qualified members of majorities, and perpetuate racial and sexual paternalism. The problem of affirmative action is whether such policies can be justified and, if so, under which conditions. At its roots, this problem is moral rather than legal. However, the most influential arguments have been legal ones advanced in the opinions of judges.

What Does “Affirmative Action” Mean?

The term affirmative action refers to positive steps to rank, admit, hire, or promote persons who are members of groups previously or presently discriminated against. It has been used to refer to everything from open advertisement of positions to quotas in employment and promotion.

The original meaning of affirmative action was minimalist. It referred to plans to safeguard equal opportunity, advertise positions openly, ensure fair recruitment, and create scholarship programs for specific groups. Few now oppose these means to the end of equal treatment, and if this were all that were meant by affirmative action, few would oppose it.

However, affirmative action has acquired broader meanings—some advanced by proponents, others by opponents. Most important, it became closely associated—especially through its opponents—with quotas and preferential policies that target specific groups, primarily women and minorities, for preferential treatment. Stern critics of affirmative action hold that affirmative action today means little more than naked preference by race. Proponents of affirmative action wholly reject this suggestion. They see affirmative action as confined to policies that favor qualified women and minority candidates over similarly qualified men or nonminority candidates, where there is ...