Affirmative action and Diversity policies - Assignment Example

Affirmative action and Diversity policies This is a response to various questions in response to affirmative action and diversity action. It offers the description that cultural diversity is a notion that acknowledges the existence of differences between people of different cultures and suggests that the treatment of these people with inclusivity. It also suggests that diversity serves to assure social responsibility and foster innovativeness. Affirmative action is aimed at addressing various disparities, including those that touch on social differences, economic development and political representation, with respect to various cultural groups. It is based on the concept that by increasing the opportunities for the minority populations, the existence gaps can be addressed. In its responses, the paper suggests that affirmative action is indeed necessary in addressing the current problems that are attributed to social categorizations. Response to Question 1 Cultural diversity is a notion that acknowledges the existence of differences between people of different cultures and suggests that the treatment of these people with inclusivity. Cultural diversity is a framework of social justice and a facilitator in the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and skills that are pivotal for societal harmony. It does not only acknowledge race and ethnicity as cultural groups, but also sexual orientation, skills and handicaps, class, gender, national origin, age and even the geographic origin. It goes further to welcome the contributions of one culture, as well as those of others for positive social development. Response to Question 2 The reason why diversity is encouraged in the student body rests upon various goals of advocacy for cultural diversity. One of the objectives of cultural diversity is to promote harmony and inclusivity. These are assured by the fact that all the cultural groups will feel they are treated fairly. Thus, they will also feel included in the system. Another goal of cultural diversity is that every culture has certain unique strengths, as well as weaknesses that it cannot effectively address certain societal issues independently. Thus, other cultures are needed to bridge the gaps (Kollehlon and Eule, 2003). In the essence, what one culture lacks is compensated by the strength of the other. Response to Question 3 In the context of business and education, the value of diversity is can still be explained based on the objectives of cultural diversity. As earlier mentioned, one of the goals is that cultural diversity fosters harmony and inclusivity. These are assured by the fact that all the cultural groups will feel they are treated fairly (Sowell, 2004). Thus, they will also feel included in the education system, as well as businesses. In this regard, cultural diversity is a depiction of social responsibility, as well as ethics. Another goal of cultural diversity is that every culture has certain unique strengths, as well as weaknesses that it cannot effectively address certain societal issues independently. Thus, other cultures are needed to bridge the gaps. What one culture lacks is compensated by the strength of the other. Different cultures have different ideas and skills that could be integrated to enable institutions and businesses reach great heights of success such as through innovativeness. Response to Question 4 Affirmative action is aimed at addressing various disparities, including those that touch on social differences, economic development and political representation, with respect to various cultural groups. The disparities have various dimensions such as education achievements and social equality. In some cases, affirmative action can be simple considered to address various elements that are attributed as the legacies of past racism and colonial injustices (Kollehlon Eule, 2003). Response to 4A It is worth noting that affirmative action is founded on the notion that economic, political and social systems are not adequately fair and tend to favor certain groups, at the expense of others. For example, affirmative action has sought to resolve the issues why some races are underrepresented in group in access to employment opportunities while overrepresented in detention and incarceration facilities. In United Kingdom, affirmative action, which is also referred to as positive discrimination, is aimed at addressing socioeconomic differences attributed to national origin, race, religion, color and sex for the befit of cultures that have been underrepresented. This targets areas such as business, education and employment. The goals of affirmative action in other areas of the globe do not significantly differ from this, only that they have often been stated otherwise (United States Department of Homeland Security 2009). Response to 4B The issues that affirmative action seeks to address are current issues, while they are also historical. In the past, the society was characterized by rampant discrimination in regard to social and economic development. These disparities and social exclusion have been carried forward and can still be experienced today. Until 2005, the Minority youth accounted for about 78 percent of the total number of youth detained in Youth Development Centers across all United States detention facilities. Conversely, it was also established that about 67 percent of minority juveniles were detained in State Detention facilities. When it comes to employment opportunities, these races are still underrepresented. This is attributed to discrimination that is still playing the role of social exclusion or as a result of past injustices that placed certain groups in advantageous position and have made other excluded groups unable to catch up (United States Department of Homeland Security 2009). Response to Question 5 I fully support the view that the idea of cultural diversity or affirmative action. This is informed by the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights advocates that all people should be treated with equality, irrespective of social categorization (United States Department of Homeland Security, 2009). This implies that there is no reason as to why some groups of people should be accorded advantages at the expense of others. There is the need to adopt measures that ensures that all the socioeconomic opportunities are accorded to groups in the most proportionate way. Response to question 6 Affirmative action is aimed at promoting opportunities of certain groups that have been discriminated within the society. It serves to ensure that all the minority groups are represented proportionately in all areas of social and political systems. The underlying concept is that by increasing the opportunities for the underrepresented communities, the inequalities would be successfully eliminated (Gabbidon & Greene, 2013).). The framework for affirmative action is supported by the legal framework, in what is referred to as the quotas. These are varied across countries. Response to question 8 I support affirmative action among the police officers. This is because it would not only reflect social responsibility, but would also function to address certain flaws within the enforcement system. One of the flaws that this can effectively address is that pertaining to the discriminate arrests based on social categorization bias. Discriminate arrest is one of the accounts to overrepresentation and underrepresentation of certain social categories of people (Gabbidon & Greene 2013). This is particularly because police enjoy substantial discretion in arrests and prosecution, which is often biased. Response to part 9 Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights advocates that all people should be treated with equality, irrespective of social categorization, there are other areas besides enforcement system that the these inequalities are felt. These include education and leadership position, among others (United States Department of Homeland Security 2009). It would be socially responsible to also address these areas. References Gabbidon, S. L., & Greene, H. T. (2013). Race and Crime. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc Kollehlon, T and Eule, E. (2003). “The socioeconomic attainment patterns of Africans in the United States,” International Migration Review, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 1163–1190 Sowell, T. (2004). Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study, Yale University Press United States Department of Homeland Security (2009). Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2008, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics, Washington, DC, USA, 2009 Read More