Affirmative action policy is an action to provide rights and privileges to groups that have been previously been discriminated against based on race, color, nationality, creed and gender. The first attempt to eliminate all types of discrimination and social inequality in the united States was started by President John F. Kennedy when he signed Executive Order 10925 on March 6th, 1961. This created basis for fair treatment of employees in the workplace, regardless of skin color, origin, religion or gender. The law was developed in such a way that now it doesn’t matter what color a person is; everyone has an equal chance, which creates equality and choice.
However, with the development of an understanding of what affirmative action policy should be, and the emergence of such things as hiring quotas or employment quotas, this topic is becoming more controversial. Some people consider this policy socially necessary to restore historical justice, while others consider it socially unfair and even harmful. Therefore, on the one hand, affirmative action is a good method of eliminating discrimination at a faster rate, while on the other hand, it can also be called “reverse discrimination”. Indeed, while the main idea is to avoid favoritism and injustice, affirmative action can lead to the opposite, as there are groups that are discriminated against because they are not considered minorities. To clarify why these problems exist, it’s necessary to to analyze the moral basis of the current affirmative action approach. However, it should be borne in mind that affirmative action can also and well influence the outcome, which will lead to equality in society, and racial discrimination will disappear.
The difficulty of resolving conflicts between different groups about the need for affirmative action depends on the nature of the problem itself. from an ethical point of view, neither discrimination against whites in the interest of minorities nor idleness in the fight against racism is acceptable. However, while this seems possible, in practice, in an attempt to restore justice in the workplace and at the university often leads to the violation of the rights of the “dominant group”. However, this doesn’t mean that this practice is impossible; by restoring fairness, equality can be achieved.
Moreover, the effectiveness of affirmative action has not been fully researched and truly studied, so it seems that it’s being used based on assumptions and stereotypes made in different situations. when data on affirmative action is lacking, it’s not easy to assume that they are not relevant. Therefore, more research results on this topic are needed to avoid misunderstandings and study the data on the consequences of affirmative action properly.
In conclusion, it was shown that affirmative action is a highly debatable topic, although its main implication is probably supported by the majority. In this regard, the main problem that arises is “reverse discrimination” that appears as a consequence of certain policies. As a result, people are generally divided into two camps: those who support affirmative action, and those who do not. Most of the arguments that appear today are based on people’s presumptions and personal in-group, religious and moral values.
Leave a Reply