The following are a few common misconceptions that people have about affirmative action and the actual facts that respond to them. Affirmative action does not mean the hiring of unqualified people. In fact these activities are specifically prohibited by law. Affirmative action allows competent and qualified women and people of color to compete and excel in areas where they are or have been under represented. Affirmative action forces employers to set quotas for the number of women and minorities they will employ.
Quotas are illegal in affirmative action programs.
There are no legal penalties if goals are not met, as long as good faith efforts to achieve them are made. It is hard to understand why people feel so threatened by affirmative action. And it is not that this very small help is not needed. Women and people of color still earn a fraction of what white males with similar qualifications earn, and are not able to break the glass ceilings, to obtain managerial positions. The main reason spoken by the principal proponent of Prop. 209, Gov. Wilson, is politics.