Question

Some opponents of affirmative action policies claim that affirmative action policies ultimately hurt the minorities they were designed to assist in the first place. Discuss an argument you could make to either defend or refute this position.

Answer 1

One example of affirmative action is the diversity hiring policy that we see at many organization. These policies are designed to favor minorities in order to increase the diversity profile of an organization.

While many people support this idea, there are people who argue against these policies. I personally support the idea of affirmative action. The reason behind that is that we are a capitalist economy. In this economy, the wealthier and privileged people keep getting wealthier and the poor people keep getting poorer. Overall the inequality keeps rising in most cases. There are a few fairy tale stories but they are mostly an anomaly rather than norm. Considering that minorities throughout the history has been oppressed, driven out, tortured, enslaved and has been severely disadvantaged over couple of centuries in the past, it is unlikely that there will be a quick bounce back by them in few decades. It is mainly due to the fact that they have been hurt culturally, psychologically and we have set them back by at least a century in terms of development.

Today we are more aware of equality, equity and justice and thus we have incorporated such policies to uplift these minorities so that gradually, they can gain an equal footing to the general population. It is going to take time and patience. We cannot live under the delusion that the minorities and their confidence will be back as the same level in the next few decades. This is why I defend the affirmative action policies.