Without this willingness to change the power base, no amount of cultural enlightenment, goodwill, or civility will lead to an equitable, pluralistic society. Affirmative action has been one of the most effective strategies used by organizations to bring about this change in the institutional power base. It has provided access to potential leadership opportunities for members of social identity groups who had never been allowed into our educational, economic, and political institutions. Affirmative action is different from equal employment opportunity requirements and goes beyond a fixation on numbers, which is evident in a compliance mode. Affirmative action is about fixing the system and changing the organizational culture rather than fixing the way individuals fit into an existing system.
Affirmative action is as concerned about retention as it is about recruitment.
Affirmative action will continue to be necessary as long as the societal and institutional power base is primarily in the hands of a small group of people whose monocultural perspective defines the right style, the right standards of excellence, the right pedigree, the right experience, and the right answers. These definitions have created an uneven playing field. If there is any question of this, just look around you. If you are sincere and look at it objectively, you must agree that we are not. While it is not a panacea for curing the ills of monoculturalism, affirmative action surely is needed today as much as it was needed twenty years ago.