affirmative action

Affirmative action is a general term for a policy that encourages organizations to increase their representation of historically oppressed groups, such as racial minorities and women. Affirmative action is especially common in employment and education.

At one time, affirmative action was actually sometimes enforced through quotas. Organizations had to have a specific number of their members be from various groups. However, the Supreme Court declared this to be unconstitutional. Instead, many organizations use the phrase goals and timetables to refer to the number of applicants of disenfranchised groups they hope to recruit, admit, or hire. Legally, an organization does not have to actually meet their affirmative action goal but is supposed to use the goal to measure how effective it is at representing certain groups.

Affirmative action is, generally speaking, more strictly enforced by the federal government. This means that businesses that have contracts with the federal government or are funded by the federal government (such as college scholarship programs) could lose their funding or face other effects if they fail to meet their affirmative action goals. 

Private organizations, on the other hand, cannot be forced to implement affirmative action programs. Still, many schools and businesses voluntarily create their own programs or pursue what is known as “equal opportunity employment” to avoid violating discrimination laws.

The first records of the phrase affirmative action come from around 1960. The phrase was used by President John F. Kennedy to show that the government affirmed (stated or asserted) its intention to take action against discrimination. This is still largely the intent behind many affirmative action programs today.

Affirmative action has been extremely controversial and polarizing throughout much of US history and remains so today. In the legal system, for example, courts have seen numerous affirmative action policies challenged, ruled unlawful, upheld, appealed, re-upheld, re-appealed, and so on. Supporters of affirmative action argue that these policies help fight against wider discrimination and improve organizations by encouraging diversity. Opponents argue that affirmative action is a form of positive discrimination and is often itself biased toward upper- and middle-class people.

Affirmative action policies are illegal in California, Washington, Arizona, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Michigan, Florida, and New Hampshire. Affirmative action was also illegal in the state of Texas from 1996 until 2003.

This video shows a news story on affirmative action and gives an example of why it is often considered to be controversial among Americans:

Affirmative action is a very divisive subject among Americans. Even mere mentions of affirmative action on social media often result in angry debate and arguing.

Harvard wins affirmative action lawsuit in federal district court, Boston. Major victory, appeal likely.

— Richard Wolf (@richardjwolf) October 1, 2019

Former Va Sen. Webb challenged on his criticism of affirmative action, says he's always supported it among African Americans #DemDebate

— WSYX ABC 6 (@wsyx6) October 14, 2015

• discrimination
• equality
• diversity
• equal opportunity
• employment
• education

True or False?

Affirmative action encourages organizations to increase their representation of historically oppressed groups