Affirmative Action Is Still an Important Factor

¶ … affirmative action is still an important factor in the sociopolitical makeup of the United States. This policy has radically changed employment and school admission policies around the county. To eliminate affirmative action at this point in time would have an adverse affect on women and minorities across the country.

Affirmative action works. A study done by the U.S. Labor Department indicates that affirmative action has been responsible for a positive move in the workforce for five million minorities and six million white women.

As the preceding paragraph states, progress has been made. However, women still make seventy-six cents for every male dollar earned and African-Americans continue to have twice the unemployment rate of white people.

One of the primary myths about affirmative action is that it has a negative effect on the white workforce. This is not true. In Ten Myths about Affirmative Action, Scott Plous writes, "according to the U.S. Commerce Department, there are 1.3 million unemployed Black civilians and 112 million employed White civilians. Thus even if every unemployed Black were in the United States were to displace a White worker, only 1% of Whites would be affected. Furthermore, affirmative action pertains only to job-qualified applicants, so the actual percentage of affected Whites would be a fraction of 1%."