Affirmative Action Benefits of Affirmative

Affirmative Action

BENEFITS of AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

The objective of this work is to discuss the benefits of affirmative action and racial ethnicity and to discuss how affirmative action can help benefit and improve the U.S. economy.

Affirmative Action is "appropriately defined as a remedy for both past and continuing discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and gender. Affirmative action plans seek to put in place voluntary and mandatory efforts by federal, state, and local governments, private employers, and schools to combat discrimination and foster fair hiring and advancement of qualified individuals.

Usually, such plans are based on an analysis of how well women and minorities are represented in targeted areas, such as employment settings, and the percentage of qualified individuals from these backgrounds that are part of the larger pool of potential employees, students, etc. At their core, however, affirmative action plans are designed to create opportunity and eliminate both conscious and inadvertent discrimination." (American Psychological Association, 1999)

I. BENEFITS of AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

It is related by the American Psychological Association that study findings have shown that students who are exposed to a greater level of racial and ethnic diversity in college tend to exhibit the following:

deeper and more complex thinking;

greater likelihood of involvement in civic activities;

broadened ability to understand new perspectives;

Greater motivation to achieve;

Greater interest in pursuing graduate studies; and variety of important educational and civic benefits. (1999)

The work of Mitchell W. Pearlman and Gregory Daniels entitled: "Affirmative Action Benefits all of Society" states that affirmative action "is not faring well. Numerous polls and referenda, such as Proposition 209 in California several years ago, demonstrate the popular rejection of affirmative action as a method of dealing with social problems. Affirmative action is also not doing well in the courts. Nor is it likely to do better in the foreseeable future."

II. NOT a BLACK-WHITE ISSUE

Affirmative Action tends to be viewed on a consistent basis as a Black-White issue and this is stated to be due to the "power of racial stereotypes, especially those promoted by the media." (African-American Policy Forum, 2009) the truth is that Affirmative Action benefits many individuals in the United States and as examples the following are stated: (1) Arab-Americans benefit from affirmative action programs as follows: (a) Arab-American students are actively recruited by many universities; (b) university scholarship and financial aid programs are tailored for Arab-American students; - Publicly funded English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) programs for Arab-American students help both the Arab-American community and the Michigan community at large. (African-American Policy Forum, 2009) Asian-Americans are also benefitting from affirmative action programs and for example it is related that the "...(a) the Small Business Administration's Section 8(a) program has greatly benefited Asian-American-owned businesses. The Wall Street Journal estimates that affirmative action helped Asian-American-owned businesses more than double their share of contracts in a ten-year period, going from 10.5% of contracts in 1986 to 23.7% of contracts in 1996." (African-American Policy Forum, 2009) Asian Pacific Americans are particularly aided by affirmative action in trades such as law enforcement, firefighting and contracting. Benefits to Latino-Americans include race-conscious admission and recruiting strategies at universities to encourage Latino enrolment in schools. In addition, "Publicly funded English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) programs for Latino students help both the Latino community" and the community at large. (African-American Policy Forum, 2009) it is additionally stated that "Native Americans also benefit tremendously from affirmative action programs" in that "Affirmative action allows colleges and universities to reach out to Native Americans, and historically neglected community. Due to national recruiting and outreach efforts between 1980-2001, American Indian enrollment in institutions of higher education increased by 80%. " (African-American Policy Forum, 2009) Finally, women realize benefits due to affirmative action and in fact white women have been identified as the "primary beneficiaries of affirmative action..." (African-American Policy Forum, 2009) it is related that findings reported from study on affirmative action notes the following benefits to women: (1) the percentage of women architects increased from 3% to nearly 19% of the total; (2) the percentage of women doctors more than doubled from 10% to 22% of all doctors; (3) the percentage of women lawyers grew from 4% to 23% of the national total; (4) the percentage of female engineers went from less than 1% to nearly 9%; (5) the percentage of female chemists grew from 10% to 30% of all chemists; and, (6) the percentage of female college faculty went from 28% to 42% of all faculty. (African-American Policy Forum, 2009)