People who would otherwise not have had the chance to acquire skills and build productive lives have gained increased access to employment, higher education and housing. Among public sector employers, most of whom are required by law to follow affirmative action guidelines, total black employment expanded more than 15 percent between 1970 and 1980. In the private sector, too, the black employment rate has increased significantly among companies who, by court order or voluntarily, have practiced affirmative action. Given its proven effectiveness in combatting the impact of racism and sexism, surely what we need today is an increased commitment to affirmative action. Rather, longstanding policies and practices that discriminate against nonwhite people and women are what have made issues of race and gender.
Affirmative action aims to remedy such discrimination.
Second, while it's true that white males in any given era may not all have been responsible for excluding people of color and women, all white males have benefited unjustly from that historical exclusion. Just by being white and male, they have automatically enjoyed privileged status and an unfair advantage. Affirmative action seeks to eliminate the ageold, unearned benefits and privilege enjoyed by white males. Taking race and gender into consideration temporarily for remedial purposes is only fair, given the enormous burden that centuries of subjugation and exclusion have placed on minorities and women. To argue against affirmative action is to argue, in essence, for retention of white male privilege and for continuing the effects of discrimination against racial minorities and women.