Affirmative Action in the United States

A detailed Summary of Affirmative Action in the United States

Affirmative Action in the United States

The writer Mary Anne Warren is focusing on describing the current practices in many organizations today in regards to the implementing a goal vs. a quota system for the purposes of affirmative action. She defines a quota as "Those who use the term "quotas" pejoratively tend to assume that the numerical standards will be set so high or enforced so rigidly that strong reverse discrimination-that is, the deliberate hiring of demonstrably less well qualified candidates-will be necessary to implement them." (Warren, 370). Warren then describes goal as "The term "goal", on the other hand, suggests that this will not be the case, and that good faith efforts to comply with the standards by means short of strong reverse discrimination will be acceptable." (Warren, 370).

The critical thing that must be understood when exploring the subject is that the writer is describing how affirmative action is being applied in American organizations today in other words the current reality. However, she fails to speak to us about how the law designs this program to function. This is the critical component that American organizations must be educated to understand.

Affirmative action as defined by law is most d

However we are not living in an ideal world and employers still unfairly take these group differences into account when making their decisions. This is why affirmative action is still necessary. Further, the Warren makes it all too clear that employers are incorrectly applying a quota system instead of a goal system. This is what is creating the perception of reverse discrimination and inequality.

Understanding this, how does affirmative action as the law intended it to be applied in this case study.

So what is affirmative action? What is it designed to do? It is not designed to provide an opportunity to an unqualified candidate. It is designed as "a way of compensating individuals or groups for past injustices or for present disadvantages stemming form past injustices" (Warren, 373). It is further designed "as a means about bringing about further future goods-for example, raising the status of downtrodden groups." (Warren, 373). The keyword in these quotes is the word "group".

"The distinction between such weak quotas and higher quotas is crucial, since although higher quotas have in practice rarely been implemented, the apparent injustice implied by what are typically assumed to be higher quotas has generated a backlash which threatens to undermine affirmative action entirely. If quotas are abandoned, of if they are nominally adopted but never enforced, then employers will be free to continue using secondary and even primary sexist hirin

Some common words found in the essay are:
Anne Warren, Asians Likewise, affirmative action, Hispanic Asians, quota system, Action United, affirmative action applied, past injustices, black male, warren 370, male white, warren 373, strong reverse, american organizations, action applied,

Approximate Word count = 982
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous