Affirmative Action Debating Racial Preference
Affirmative Action – Debating Racial Preference
The meaning of race in North America has been shaped by political institutions since the seventeenth century. In turn, attempts to maintain or change the significance of race have shaped those institutions, and all phases of the political process. Now, in some ways as much as ever, U.S. society is fundamentally marked by racial inequality. Politics and race continue to be intertwined.
Affirmative action is often considered to be a public-policy issue on which Whites and Blacks are hopelessly divided (Delgado, 1996; Hacker, 1992; Kinder and Sanders, 1996; Thernstrom and Thernstrom, 1997). Racial division and polarization, however, do not tell the whole story. Once we move beyond the ambiguity surrounding the term “affirmative action”—and the confusion concerning existing affirmative-action programs—a good deal of agreement is revealed among Whites, Blacks, and members of other racial and ethnic groups concerning many affirmative action-related issues. “Agreement” includes a shared unease about programs involving overt racial preferences coupled with a willingness to support outreach programs as well as programs that benefit the disadvantaged, and certain other types of affirmative-action initiatives. Identifying and building on this agreement and consensus is a necessary first step in the development of any successful race-related public policy in a multiracial society, such as our own.
The term affirmative action describes policies aimed at a historically socio-politically non-dominant group (typically, minority men or women of all racial groups) intended to promote access to education or employment. Motivation for affirmative action is a desire to redress the effects of past and current discrimination that is regarded as unfair. It also serves to encourage public institutions such as universities, hospitals and police forces to be more representative of the population.
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