Affirmative Action (part 2)

Friday, August 19, 2011

In this series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4), we will examine concept of 'affirmative action'.

(continued from Part 1)...Two wrongs, don't make a right, so let me try to explain why I don't think affirmative action is a wrong.

Those that don't like affirmative action generally feel that through these policies their whiteness becomes a disadvantage. In fact, the white privilege that we carry around every day acts to bolster us so much that our whiteness can never truly be a disadvantage--affirmative action just makes it so we aren't so way out ahead (see post on so-called 'White victims of racism').

Forty-years of "advantage" cannot begin to reverse the 500 year head-start white people had, or erase the economic and psychological mars that oppression has left on over 40% of this country. There are still severe inequalities that prevent otherwise-qualified people from coming to the interview table fully equipped. We have a responsibility to rectify the discrimination in the classroom, workplace and in interviewing, as well as the historical head start white folks have had.

One problem affirmative action faces is that it gets confused with quotas. Filling quotas and affirmative action are two different things, so lets not confuse them. In my view, quotas are used to fulfill a requirement and then say "there. we're done. we can stop now. we have our token minorities." It is a system totally unrelated to merit or qualifications, which is why a lot of white people freak out about it. These practices are no longer allowed.

Affirmative action, on the other hand, when done well, is goal driven. That means the numbers can be exceeded and the policy acts to aid the company's success as well as that of the employees'. Remember that "seeking the empowerment of people of color is not the same as disenfranchising white people." The idea of proactive hiring is that you decide what qualifications one needs to be successful in the job, including a diverse background with an understanding of multiculturalism, and then you stick to those qualifications. You cast your net wide, advertising the position in Black Enterprise, or whatever applies to your field and you remember that bringing diversity into the workplace is one of the job qualifications during the interview process. Keep in mind, there are many white people that fulfill this requirement and everyone has had the opportunity to gain a background in cultural diversity, but more people of color may have taken advantage of those opportunities (often can hardly help but to!) and so may be more likely to fit the job description.

Allow me to describe a situation where this model might be relevant... Continued in Part 3....