Affrimative Action Works Essay

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Affirmative Action Works

Affirmative Action is the name given to programs that try to correct past and ongoing discriminations against women, racial minorities, and others in the work force and in education. The principal goal of Affirmative Action is to create more diversity and equal opportunities in jobs or schools that used to be all or mostly male, white, or both. Affirmative Action programs have been in place only a little over thirty years. Affirmative action works. There are thousands of examples of situations where people of color, and white women who were previously excluded from jobs or educational opportunities, or were denied opportunities once admitted, have gained access through affirmative action. When these policies received executive branch and judicial support, vast numbers of people of color, and white women gained access they would not otherwise have had. These gains have led to very real changes. Affirmative action has definitely helped women and minorities in their careers. White women now hold 40 percent of all corporate middle-management jobs, and the number of women-owned businesses has grown by 57 percent since 1982” (Dundul, p.64).

Affirmative action programs have not eliminated racism, nor have they always been implemented without problems. The implementation of affirmative action was America's first honest attempt at solving a problem it chose to ignore. Comparable imbalances exist for other racial and ethnic minorities as well as for women. Yet, to truly understand the importance of affirmative action, one must look at America's past discrimination. Affirmative action is needed to level the playing field of the work force in America.

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Affirmative action has had its greatest amount of success in city, state, and government jobs. Since the 1960s the area of law enforcement witnessed the greatest increase in minority applicants, and in jobs offered to minorities. This should be viewed as extremely positive, because prior to affirmative action these jobs were almost completely closed off to minorities and woman. Affirmative action has experienced considerably less success in integration in big business. This is do to the fact big business has been more resistant to affirmative action and harder to regulate.

Affirmative action is also needed to help black women to compete in today's corporate world. Black women in corporate America are still scarce. The Bureau of Labor Statistic's report for 1984, finds that "executive, administrative, managerial, and professional, specialty," there were only 1,474,000 black women 5.9% of the total, as opposed to 22,250,000 white women, 91% of the total number of working women in this category (Cyrus 122).

Another growing concern is white male candidates are being discriminated against, or losing out because of affirmative action programs. If we were to look at the breakdown of various white collar professions or if we look at the overall average income levels of white men we should immediately notice that people of color are still significantly under represented and underpaid in every category. People of color don't make up the proportions of these jobs even remotely equal to their percentage of the population. They don't earn wages comparable to white men. White men are tremendously over represented in almost any category of work that is highly rewarded except for professional athletics. According to a 1995 government report, white males make up only 29 percent of the workforce, but hold 95 percent of senior management...

Dundul,Tom. “Affirmative Action”. Working Women Oct. 1995: 63-66.
Cyrus, Virgina. Experiencing Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. Second Edition.

Mayfield: Publishing Co. 1996.

Skylar, Holly. Chaos or Community? Seeking Solutions, Not Scapegoats for bad Economics
Boston: South End Press. 1995.
Chappell, Kevin. “What they Don’t Tell you about Affirmative Action” Ebony Aug. 1995:

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