Affirmative Action in the Workplace
This is an excerpt from the paper...
"Affirmative action" refers to efforts to redress imbalances in the workplace, university, or other institution by actively seeking out candidates who have traditionally been excluded, such as members of racial minorities and women. In the past, certain Americans have been excluded from full participation in the American economy, and racial discrimination and sexual discrimination have been cited as the two primary reasons for this. Affirmative action is a way of seeking out candidates from previously excluded groups and may include preferential treatment in order to elevate minority candidates above other candidates in order to achieve some form of racial or gender balance. The goal is admirable, but the means can lead to conflict and to a system in which excellence is not the primary criterion for advancement. These critics charge that this is precisely what has happened, and they see affirmative action as opposed to the ideal of a meritocracy in which each person accomplishes what he or she can based on their abilities and not on some secondary factor such as gender or skin color. They also charge that affirmative action has in fact been damaging to the very minorities it has been intended to help, but this conclusion is incorrect. In fact, affirmative action has been good for minorities and has provided them with opportunities they otherwise would not have had. Affirmative action is a policy that recognizes that the ideal of a meritocracy is possible
. . .
itarian principle that achievement should be rewarded in society:
We generally want the best to have the best positions, the best qualified candidate to win the political office, the most brilliant and competent scientist to be chosen for the most challenging research project, the best qualified pilots to become commercial pilots, only the best soldiers to become generals. Only when little is at stake do we weaken the standards and content ourselves with sufficiency (rather than excellence). . . (Pojman 251).
Affirmative action does not mean we are contenting ourselves with sufficiency instead of excellence, however--it means we are providing opportunities for those with merit to demonstrate it where in the past they have been denied this opportunity. The argument that we are no longer interested in merit is simply false, as is the claim that merit alone once prevailed as the criteria for hiring, advancement and other social benefits.
Ezorsky addresses the claims of the meritocratic critics and finds that their argument is untenable. She says that those who believe in a meritocracy also believe that justice in the workplace is demonstrated by workers being selected according to standards of merit alone. These critics th
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
JUSTICE Ezorsky's, Jackie Robinson, Utility Pojman, INTRODUCTION Affirmative, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, Modus Tollens, affirmative action, Louis Pojman, Bakke Bakke, Ronald Dworkin, James Sterba, true meritocracy, argument affirmative action, pojman 251, jackie robinson, meritocracy existed, action programs, women minorities, argument affirmative, ezorsky 258, able develop, affirmative action programs, york wadsworth 1997, practice james sterba, affirmative action changed,
Approximate Word count = 2582
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Affirmative Action in the Workplace
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
