Affirmative Action

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Affirmative Action

The first difficulty to a rational discussion of Affirmative Action is defining exactly what it is. Because it’s bring into play has been limited in certain respects by court decisions, certain descriptors are avoided, even if it is not entirely clear that they do not rightly be relevant. Affirmative Action is often defined by its deliberate result: a way of correcting the historical wrongs suffered by certain minority groups, especially blacks. But that could apply to any kind of reimbursement program, whether financial or educational, including one that directed certain actions to be taken. Any attempt to define Affirmative Action particularly launches one immediately on controversy, because it introduces the very elements that are so hotly contested or sighted.
Affirmative action, in theory, is a matter of distributive justice, which is why liberals and progressives tend to look benevolently on it while conservatives and libertarians consider it a travesty. But in practice, does it actually advance the cause of justice in America? In some respects it has attempted to remedy the long-term effects of slavery and racial segregation; then again, programs that benefit women and recent immigrants cannot be defended on those grounds. Is it supposed to enhance "diversity" in colleges, professional schools and workplaces, or is it more specifically a set of programs for enhancing the class mobility of people who are structurally disadvantaged from birth? How can we decide whether affirmative action has been successful--and how can we decide whether affirmative action could ever be so successful as to become obsolete? (Bérubé, Michael 2005)
Affirmative Action may also contain acceptance of a minority applicant in cases where other applicants would be considered as unqualified, even though no qualified applicant is displaced. Affirmative Action is mainly occupied in applications to educational institutions, and in e...