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What is Affirmative Action
attempts to make progress toward substantive, rather than merely formal, equality o opportunity for these groups, such as women and racial minorities, which are underrepresented in significant position in society, by explicitly taking into account the defying characteristics-sex or race-which has been the basis for discrimination” (Mullen 1988, 244). The analysis depicts the idea that affirmative action assuages the oppressive pain of the past making it a successful tool for providing equality in business.
Affirmative action undertakes the tedious task of eliminating prejudice in business. People like George Bush and Ronald Regan presume that discrimination and prejudice has ling been extinct from many aspects of society in America, including business practices leading to their belief that there is no need for affirmative action programs. Supporters, on the contrary, believe that discrimination still appears in numerous areas of society especially business. Affirmative action programs have not yet accomplished their goal of ending bias in employment practices due to sex or race. Paul L. Watchel states, “Social psychological research has shown that evaluators can exhibit bias toward choosing applicants form groups they are more familiar or comfortable with… For this and other5 reasons we have still not arrived at the day win we can comfortable assume that even without the continuing pressure of affirmative action programs, African Americans and members of other previously excluded groups will be viewed” (247-248). Affirmative action has the power to discontinue discrimination in business, whether it is conscious bias or subconscious bias. By restraining the problem before it occurs, affirmative action programs will not allow discrimination to surface in employment practices. Ronald J. Fiscus declares “The point of this discursion is that even if the color of one’s skin in our hypothetical society gas no or significance than the color of one’s hair or eyes, our society might not be perfectly non-racist, as stipulations requires it to be. If ass of us unconsciously prejudge each other, at least to some extent, on the basis of physical traits, then clearly differences in skin color present multiple opportunities for a kind of low level racism even in a society that is not consciously racist”(18). Discrimination is and everlasting sociological ideal that has caused animosity between people of different race and sex and has not limited itself to any particular area in society. Business has been exposed to discrimination thorough the evidence of extremely low numbers of diverse groups of people in many companies prior to the establishment of affirmative action. Affirmative action might not be able to change the discriminatory views of people but it will enable minorities to obtain opportunism in the working field that did not have before regardless of the perspectives people have of them.
Affirmative action provides multiply benefits for the business atmosphere. Opponents of affirmative action claim that [next page]