Affirmative Action in Social Policy



Affirmative Action in Social Policy

Introduction

An individual cannot be judged on their gender, ethnicity or race. Social policies, most notably regarding affirmative action are planned and implemented to evolve those elements that demean an individual's rights by subjugating their gender based, ethnic or racial identities. The social policy of affirmative action, and its based laws, has its affects on many people. All government and public sector employees, federal and state workers, as well as military personnel are in direct affect by these laws on affirmative action. This is not all. Multitude of companies in the private sector, a source of livelihood for the country's one forth work force; approximately 16.5 million students in higher education provisioning American institutions; are also affected by affirmative action's practical implications.

Policies of affirmative action grasp widespread awareness because these policies inherently debate concepts of fairness and improving the human condition. Our patriotic instincts kick in as we proclaim our nation to be the upholder of fairness, though our history tells us a different story. America's history does not give any indication of providing fairness to individuals, regardless of gender, ethnicity or race. Policies that deal with the prevalent disparities between our moralistic values and our actual behavior have ideal features that can generate hot debates amongst scholars, intellectuals and professionals within certain industry circles. This statement can be well explained by just looking at the amount of published articles and stories that cover affirmative action, in the media today. A website like Amazon gives a listing of more than 400 books on or connected to affirmative action. Simply searching 'affirmative action' on a search-engine like Google generates results closer to million web links.

Analysis of recent decades, gives me an idea that the proponents of affirmative action, and their opponents, are not debating properly, they are talking across each other. This resonance within the law and policy makers, indicate that the concept of affirmative action has varied meaning for different people. Focus groups, surveys and opinion polls disclose a critical fact that majority of US citizens are not knowledgeable about the basic tenets and principles of the concept of affirmative action. As such it is not expect of the mass population to interpret and decipher the technical mechanics of the concept.

An Example

Some Chicago residents were randomly sampled, to access their knowledge of the concept of affirmative action. The results showed that more than two thirds of the sampled linked the concept of affirmative action with that of a quota system. Half of the sampled believed affirmative action to be a form of monitoring system. The survey also found that the first group within the sample did not like affirmative action, whereas the second group advocated the policy measure. The research team of this project, checked for the differences by controlling variables such as age, race, gender and political allegiances. The findings revealed that the differences in endorsement of affirmative action policies persisted within the two mentioned group types, even after controlling aforementioned ...