Affirmative Action: The Pros and Cons

Affirmative action is the result of a presidential order created to increase the inclusion of historically excluded groups in the workplace and places of education. Affirmative action does not imply that anyone should receive preferential treatment. It is designed to promote quality. For the most part affirmative action brings about a positive change in society, but some say that preferential treatment is a bug problem.

Affirmative action began with President J.F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10925 in 1961. The executive order required that employers "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." Six years later President Johnson expanded the order to include affirmative action for women. Although these orders did not solve all of the discrimination problems faced in America, they did have a significant impact on businesses and schools around the country. It also proved that women and minorities were able to perform the managerial tasks just as well as a middle class white male could.

For the last forty-five years affirmative action has brought a greater sense of equality in education and in the workforce. President Johnson called it "the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights," he emphasized that "we seek... not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result." With this in mind affirmative action has opened the door for many minorities as well as women, to move up in the workplace and attend some of the most prestigious universities in the country. It's not that these groups are automatically accepted for admission or promotion; affirmative action simply ensures that a certain percentage of the school and workplace population will be from a minority group or women.

Affirmative action contributes to an overall cultural diversity; this is often under emphasized when discussing affirmative action. An understanding of one's self and personal culture as well as the cultures of our peers is all positive effects of having a diverse population of people inside of schools and professional environments. It is the daily interactions with each other that make people more tolerant and understanding of others.

Critics of affirmative action cite reverse discrimination and unwarranted preferences. In the case of California V Bakke, Allan Bakke had applied and been denied twice to admission into a medical school. Allan had a higher grade point average than a number of the minority candidates that were accepted yet he was still denied. The courts decision, a closely divided vote held "that race could be one of the factors in considering choosing a diverse student body [but] that the use of quotas in such affirmative action programs was not permissible." Some might suggest that any inconveniences to the Anglo-Saxon majority are acceptable when one considers the injustices and subsequent inconveniences suffered by minorities and women alike.

Affirmative action has more positive qualities than negative side effects. Many people who wouldn't have had any real opportunities to succeed and excel in life were given the changes through the affirmative action legislation. University and supervisory populations were once homogenous and almost exclusively white male. Today the diversity and empowerment opportunities of our schools and work places help contribute to a richer cultural environment from everyone. There is much to learn about other cultures and affirmative action helps us learn in the best way, through interaction.