Affirmative Action Possible Disadvantages as Previously Seen,

¶ … Affirmative Action

Possible Disadvantages

As previously seen, it is clear Affirmative Advantage is not entirely beneficial to all. Although it promotes greater diversity in the workplace, which is essentially a prime solution for combating ongoing prejudice, it also promotes reverse discrimination. Thus, there are some clear disadvantages the solution presents in regards to its attempt to resolve a lack of diversity within the work and academic environments. Along with the notions of reverse discrimination and mismatching, Affirmative Action also creates a situation where race and gender is unintentionally still being a part of the hiring process. It is crucial for modern firms to use Affirmative Action within a blended and holistic approach to hiring; it should help promote diversity, while not being a rigid system of quotas that diminishes the power of merit within the workplace.

In a world-based entirely on equality, race and gender would not even go into a hiring discussion; rather, the personal merits of the candidates would be the only topic involved in determining who is hired and who is not. Yet, this is not a perfect world; in fact, it is far from it. Affirmative Action aims to help increase the breadth of diversity within the workplace; however, it is still based on the stereotypical notions of the past. Rather than moving the focus away from focusing on racial or gender characteristics, Affirmative Action actually reinforces them.

Essentially, "it places focus on racial and gender related issues when employers should primarily focus on how well a potential employee will perform in a particular position."

This creates a situation where Affirmative Action actually reinforces the type of thinking it aimed to destroy. A true notion of broadening the work place diversity would focus less on racial or gender characteristics, and more so on worker merit. Essentially, discrimination is not destroyed with Affirmative Action, but rather transformed. This creates a situation where women and minorities are still being evaluated on their racial and gender features, which still echoes the past; whereas white males are now subject to greater harm than good within a new environment that tends to look past merit.

In order to remedy this situation, Affirmative Action must be well balanced with other hiring strategies. Affirmative Action should be just one part of a holistic approach to hiring in a modern, multi-faceted world.