Outlines of The Role of Affirmative Action in Society - Term Paper Example

XXXXXXX Number: XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX XX – XX – of XXXXXXX The Role of Affirmative Action in Society: An OutlineI. Introduction:1. Growing diversity in the work place leads to growing levels of discrimination in the work place2. Work places now focus on having the right combination of different people without giving importance to gender or race (Foothill, 2004).II. Affirmative Action:1. Affirmative action is an American approach that has been developed to deal with problems2. Since 1965, the US government has focused a lot on ensuring that women and minority class get the needed recognition and representation.3. The focus has been to reduce any form of discrimination against these groups of society4.

George Sher has tried to justify the reverse discrimination and he explains, "The crucial fact about [white males who suffer reverse discrimination] is . that unless reverse discrimination is practiced, they will benefit more than the others from its effects on their competitors. They will benefit more because unless they are restrained, they, but not the others, will use their competitive edge to claim jobs which their competitors would otherwise have gotten. Thus, it is only because they stand to gain the most from the role of the effects of the original discrimination, that the bypassed individuals stand to lose the most from reverse discrimination" (Beckwith & Jones, 1997 in Warren, 1991).III. Affirmative Action and Society:1.

Affirmative action is a very sensitive subject, however the main aim of affirmative action is to provide the same level of protection to all minority groups.2. Issues that may arise with the adoption of affirmative action:a. An excellent point as brought out by Professor Tummala, is that the affirmative action leads to creation of a hostile work environmentb. Affirmative action tends to put a stigma on the ethnic group that it protectsc. This can lead to inferiority complex which in turn can lead to misunderstandingsd.

The implementation of Affirmative Action in some manners develops a feeling of ‘us versus them’ (Sztuczko-Payk, 2010).3. A major myth that is present in the society is that affirmative action leads to a higher number of minority to be sent to college, however this is merely a myth and is not true.a. Most students who fall into the minority groups tend to leave from school itself and are not keen on joining collegeb. A very good also brought out by Nakashima of the UC Board, is that, “Ive never said that affirmative action has never worked, But when you achieve the purposes that some programs were created for, you dont need to keep it up.

If you favor one person, youre going to deny another person. We dont have a limitless supply of rights" (Woo, 2009).4. Affirmative action has a positive as well as negative impact on the society.5. This can lead to unfair advantage on certain groups of people which leads to higher issues like reverse discriminationIV. Conclusions:1. The main aim of affirmative action is to protect the minority groups of society2. The focus is also to provide priority to the minority groups3. Successful implementation of affirmative action in any society is one where the people from disadvantaged economical background are given a few opportunities.4. Since the focus is on the minority and economically disadvantaged groups, here the decision making needs to be accurate and precise to avoid mismatch and imbalanced approachWorks CitedBeckwith, F. J., & Jones, T. (1997). Affirmative Action: Social Justice or Reverse Discrimination?

Prometheus BooksSztuczko-Payk, M. (2010). The Pros and Cons of Affirmative Action: Neccessary for Equal Opportunity or Reverse Discrimination. Retrieved April 19, 2010, from http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/diversity/11063Woo, E. (2009, January 22). S. Stephen Nakashima dies at 86; former regent voted to end affirmative action at UC campuses. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/22/local/me-nakashima22Warren, J (1991). Therell be no desert for you today, young man: Affirmative Action as a Numbers Racket.

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