What is affirmation action?

Answer 1

Affirmative action is when a minority is given extra 'points' or such just for being a minority.

Basically, any member of a minority group is given the advantage just for being a minority. Politicians look down on minorities and claim to help them, but what they're really saying is 'you aren't capable of helping yourself, so we have to hand it to you, all we ask of you is you vote for us without question." it's a tool to unite all minority groups.

Answer 2

Affirmative Action are programs intended to make up for discrimination by helping minority groups and African American males and females to gain more access to jobs and other special opportunities.

AA is allowed ONLY as a remedy to proven discrimination in any job family, and must - by law - be temporary and narrowly focused. AA is never designed as a BENEFIT for any underutilized race, but a PENALTY on an employer.
" Affirmative action pertains to providing special assistance to groups who have been disadvantaged historically. Law or policy makers may provide legislation or programs aimed at empowering target groups with skills &/ confidence in order that they may compete on level ground with everyone else. An example may include an employer devising & implementing special training or recruitment programs for special needs groups such as: Aboriginal/Indigenous people, women, people with disabilities or those of a foreign language. In summary, 'affirmative action' is about breaking down barriers to opportunities, which larger sections of society may well take for granted."

This response is a paraphrased version of a definition I have in a study module for certificate IV Human Resources, so it ought to be relatively accurate. Cheers & Regards, Sandrit I-R-T, Melbourne, Australia This Land Is My Land A telling example of this was given to me by a black college student in Oklahoma. He said whites give him looks that say: "What are you doing here? "

"When do they give you that look?" I asked.

"Every time I walk in a door," he replied.

When he said that, every black person in the room nodded and smiled in a way that indicated recognition based on thousands of such moments in their own lives. For most blacks, America is either a land of denied opportunity or one in which the opportunities are still grudgingly extended and extremely limited. For some -- that one-third who are mired in poverty, many of them isolated in dangerous ghettos -- America is a land of desperadoes and desperation. In places where whites see a lot of idealism, blacks see, at best, idealism mixed heavily with hypocrisy. Blacks accept America's greatness, but are unable to ignore ugly warts that many whites seem to need not to see. I am reminded here of James Baldwin's searing observation from The Fire Next Time: The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed that collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace, that Americans have always dealt honorably with Mexicans and Indians and all other neighbors or inferiors, that American men are the world's most direct and virile, that American women are pure. It goes without saying, then, that blacks and whites remember America differently. The past is hugely important since we argue a lot about who we are on the basis of who we think we have been, and we derive much of our sense of the future from how we think we've done in the past. In a nation in which few people know much history these are perilous arguments, because in such a vacuum, people tend to weave historical fables tailored to their political or psychic needs. Blacks are still recovering the story of their role in America, which so many white historians simply ignored or told in ways that made black people ashamed. But in a culture that batters us, learning the real history is vital in helping blacks feel fully human. It also helps us understand just how deeply American we are, how richly we have given, how much has been taken from us and how much has yet to be restored. Supporters of affirmative action believe that broad and deep damage has been done to American culture by racism and sexism over the whole course of American history and that they are still powerful forces today. We believe that minorities and women are still disadvantaged in our highly competitive society and that affirmative action is absolutely necessary to level the playing field. Not all white Americans oppose this view and not all black Americans support it. There are a substantial number of whites in this country who have been able to escape our racist and sexist past and to enter fully into the quest for equal justice. There are other white Americans who are not racists but who more or less passively accept the powerful suggestions coming at them from all points in the culture that whites are entitled to privilege and to freedom from competition with blacks. And then there are racists who just don't like blacks or who actively despise us. There are still others who may or may not feel deep antipathy, but who know how to manipulate racism and white anxiety for their own ends. Virtually all the people in the last category oppose affirmative action and some of them make a practice of preying upon those in the second category who are not paying attention or who, like the Post's Richard Cohen, are simply confused.