Affirmative Action Explained: Policies, Pros, Cons, and Myths

What Is Affirmative Action?

Affirmative action (U.S. English), or positive discrimination (British English), is a policy or program that provides advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against, with the aim of creating a more egalitarian society. This consists of preferential access to education, employment, health care, or social welfare.

In employment, affirmative action may also be known as employment equity. In this context, affirmative action requires that institutions increase the hiring and promotion of candidates from mandated groups.

Affirmative action is controversial. Critics often regard it as racialism and reverse discrimination, arguing that it takes a situational stand against racial and gender preference — supporting it in some situations but not others — instead of a principled stand that always objects to such preferences. Another criticism is the claim that affirmative action is anti-meritocratic, reducing incentive for productive work, and that demographic differences actually arise in part from cultural differences. Critics are also concerned that affirmative action may encourage animosity on both sides, as well as tribalistic thinking.

Affirmative action exists to change the distribution of jobs, education, wealth, or other resources based on characteristics that typically include race, sex, or ethnicity. A certain minority group or gender may be less proportionately represented in an area — often employment or education — due predominantly, in the view of proponents, to past or ongoing discrimination against members of that group. In such circumstances, proponents believe that government action giving members of the group preferential treatment is necessary in order to achieve a proportionate distribution.

Though affirmative action in the U.S. is primarily associated with racial issues, the American civil rights movement originally gave as its purpose the correction of a history of oppression against all working-class and low-income people.

The inability of most people to define affirmative action is understandable in light of the fact that current statutes, Executive Orders, and government regulations contain only a very few clearly delineated or comprehensive definitions of the concept. The Constitution of the United States contains no reference to affirmative action. Of particular relevance in the affirmative action debate is the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which provides that no state shall "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Historical Origins and Executive Orders

In the modern era, the concept of affirmative action was reborn on June 25, 1941, on the eve of World War II, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, prohibiting government contractors from engaging in employment discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. This order was the first presidential action ever taken to prevent employment discrimination by private employers holding government contracts. The Executive Order applied to all defense contractors but contained no enforcement authority. President Roosevelt signed it primarily to ensure that there would be no strikes or demonstrations disrupting the manufacture of military supplies as the country prepared for war.

The order declared it the policy of the United States to encourage full participation in the national defense program by all citizens, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, in the firm belief that the democratic way of life could be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups within its borders. The order also noted that available and needed workers had been barred from employment in defense industries solely because of race, creed, color, or national origin, to the detriment of workers' morale and national unity.

The order further established that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and declared it the duty of employers and labor organizations to provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries. Its specific provisions required the following:

First, all departments and agencies of the Government concerned with vocational and training programs for defense production were directed to take special measures to ensure that such programs were administered without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin. Second, all contracting agencies of the Government were required to include in all defense contracts a provision obligating the contractor not to discriminate against any worker because of race, creed, color, or national origin. Third, a Committee on Fair Employment Practice was established in the Office of Production Management, consisting of a chairman and four other members appointed by the President. The Committee was charged with receiving and investigating complaints of discrimination in violation of the order, taking appropriate steps to redress valid grievances, and recommending to the relevant departments, agencies, and the President all measures deemed necessary to carry out the order's provisions.

The term "affirmative action" first appeared in Executive Order 10925, signed by President John F. Kennedy on March 6, 1961. The Kennedy Executive Order followed a series of orders issued by every President since Franklin D. Roosevelt requiring government contractors to agree not to discriminate against employees or job applicants because of race, creed, color, or national origin. The Kennedy order additionally mandated that these contractors agree to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin."