Affirmative action

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'''Affirmative action''' (or '''AA''') refers to policies that favor members of disadvantaged groups in an attempt to make up for [[history|historic]] or continuing oppression, particularly [[racism]], [[sexism]], and [[homophobia]], and for other circumstances which cause(d) such groups to be [[discrimination|disadvantaged]], such as [[Disability|disabilities]].<ref name="The Federal Register">[https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/11246.html Executive Order 11246--Equal employment opportunity] ''National Archives''.</ref><ref>[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/affirmative-action/ Affirmative Action] by Robert Fullinwider (First published Fri Dec 28, 2001; substantive revision Mon Apr 9, 2018) ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''.</ref> These policies are very prevalent in the [[United States]], due to its history of [[slavery]] and [[Jim Crow laws]] that extended into the 1960s.

==Implementation==
In its crudest forms, affirmative action would mean giving some sort of preference to a person from a historically-oppressed group over that of someone from a historically-[[Privilege|advantaged]] group, all other things being [[equality|equal]]. Universities giving additional "points" on admissions scales to individuals from under-represented groups or employers actively recruiting people from those groups are examples of this approach. Another very crude form would be the outright quota. While not seen (and indeed legally and politically [[taboo]]) in the US, such tactics are occasionally seen elsewhere, as with India's reservation system,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110522114750/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/no-way-out-private-sector-has-to-implement-quota/12030-3.html 'Pvt sector has to implement quota'] (Jun 02, 2006 at 06:47pm IST) ''IBN Live'' (archived from May 22, 2011)</ref> though [[caste]] and race aren't synonymous.

==Reactions==
Affirmative action was welcomed by many progressive thinkers and activists as an effective way to enable non-whites and women to compete with White males on an even footing, due to the inability of non-whites and women to get [[job]]s or educational opportunities solely open to White males.

However, opponents of the concept see it as a form of [[Reverse racism|reverse bias]] against Whites, males, and White males. Some opponents argued that a "hand up" should only be given on the basis of [[social class]] (to help people from [[poor]] neighborhoods, for instance), rather than race or [[gender]], and that only material assistance, rather than quotas or the like, should be used (due to the fact that not all minorities or women are poor or without advantage, and not all white males are rich or even middle class). Nonetheless, the outcome has not been positive in [[state]]s that have banned affirmative action policies.{{efn|Most notably, [[Michigan]], at their State University undergraduate level.<ref>[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/06/24/us/affirmative-action-bans.html How Minorities Have Fared in States With Affirmative Action Bans] by Ford Fessenden & Josh Keler (2016) ''The New York Times''.</ref>}}

[[Irony|Ironically]] (but not surprisingly), some White people never had a problem with it when it favoured them.<ref name=katznelson>''When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America'' by Ira Katznelson (2005) W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393052133.</ref> A major example of affirmative action favoring White people was the implementation of [[New Deal]], which while not explicitly race-based, was functionally so. Specifically,<ref name=katznelson/>{{rp|14-24,51-61}}
*The exclusion from [[Social Security]] of farm workers and domestic servants (maids). At the time, these occupations were dominated by African Americans, particularly in the South.
*The local control of federal funds ([[states' rights]]), which meant that White racists decided who was eligible for funds in most cases.
A second major example was the {{wpl|G.I. Bill}} following [[World War II]], which gave huge benefits to returning soldiers after the war in the form of educational benefits and home loan guarantees. These benefits enabled large numbers of people to enter the middle class, however the benefits heavily disfavored Black veterans both because of how the law was written (local control of federal benefits again) and due to pre-existing structural barriers. The structural barriers to black veterans receiving benefits included:<ref name=katznelson/>{{rp|80-141}}
*Jim Crow laws restricting where blacks could live, work and receive education
*{{wpl|Redlining}} that restricted where blacks could buy houses
*Black veterans in the South being restricted to overburdened and underfunded historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)
*Black veterans outside the South facing de facto admission quotas at private colleges and universities
*White bankers refusing home loans to black veterans either from overt bigotry or from refusing to make loans in the 'undesirable' areas that black families were forced to live in

==Straw man criticism==
{{main|Straw man}}
A good deal of opposition to affirmative action is based on the misconception that it imposes hard quotas that require employers to hire ''unqualified'' minorities. As in, affirmative action requires candidates from a majority group to be passed over in favour of any and all minorities. This is false and the [[Supreme Court]] has ruled against any policies doing so.<ref>[https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/579/14-981/ Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, 579 U.S. ___ (2016)] (June 23, 2016) ''Justia: U.S. Supreme Court''.</ref><ref>[https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/438/265/case.html Regents of Univ. of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978)] (June 26, 1978) ''Justia: U.S. Supreme Court''.</ref> Employers simply need only to make a good faith attempt to hire qualified minorities, by, for example, choosing the minority candidate as a tie-breaker decision or at the very least not being a [[racist]], [[sexist]], [[xenophobic]], [[homophobic]] [[bigot]] in the hiring process (so in principle not that difficult). It's worked out pretty well in the NFL, as the Pittsburgh Steelers would no doubt attest. Affirmative action laws vary widely by state and many of the programs are enforced voluntarily.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071005004844/http://www.enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/affirmative-action Affirmative Action] (2007) ''Encyclopedia of Everyday Law'' (archived from October 5, 2007).</ref> Obviously bad hires related to affirmative action can happen, as the {{wpl|Jayson Blair|Jayson Blair}} fiasco arguably attests, but to generalize such cases to attack the concept ''as a whole'' is a classic use of the [[spotlight fallacy]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120226060758/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/media_ethics/casestudy_blair.php Jayson Blair: A Case Study of What Went Wrong at The New York Times] by Kristina Nwazota (Dec. 10, 2004) ''PBS NewsHour'' (archived from February 26, 2012).</ref>

===Asian Americans===
Often trotted out are Asians being affected negatively by affirmative action, because they are model minorities (in spite of the oppression and animosity they faced historically<ref>{{wpa|Racism_in_the_United_States#Asian_Americans}}</ref>) and thus selected against by affirmative action. However, it is debatable if this is or isn't true.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160201032004/thinkprogress.org/education/2015/12/09/3729321/affirmative-action-arguments-research 7 Criticisms Of Affirmative Action That Have Been Thoroughly Disproved] by Casey Quinlan (December 9, 2015) ''Think Progress'' (archived from February 1, 2016).</ref><ref>[http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21669595-asian-americans-are-united-states-most-successful-minority-they-are-complaining-ever The model minority is losing patience: Asian-Americans are the United States’ most successful minority, but they are complaining ever more vigorously about discrimination, especially in academia] (October 3, 2015) ''The Economist''.</ref>

===Adverse impact===
Some argue that the legal doctrine of adverse impact, sometimes called disparate impact, is used to impose hiring quotas.<ref>[https://www.hirevue.com/blog/what-is-adverse-impact-and-why-measuring-it-matters What is Adverse Impact? And Why Measuring It Matters] by Nathan Mondragon (March 25<sup>th</sup>, 2018) ''Hire Vue''.</ref> In [[reality]], adverse impact is only relevant when an organization's hiring standards can ''not'' be proven to have any practical purpose other than to discriminate.<ref>[https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/530/86/1370384/ EEOC v. Sambo's of Georgia, Inc., 530 F. Supp. 86 (N.D. Ga. 1981)] (EEOC v. Sambo's of Georgia, Inc., 530 F. Supp. 86 (N.D. Ga. 1981)) ''Justia: US Law''.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Affirmative action President]]
*[[Reverse discrimination]]
*[[Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications]]

==Notes==
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==References==
{{Reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Discrimination]]
[[Category:Political terms]]
[[Category:Social justice]]
[[Category:United States politics]]

Categories: Discrimination, Political terms, Social justice, United States politics