AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

This essay considers the issue of affirmative action as the concept has been and to some extent still is applied in the United States. Specifically, information is developed and presented with a view toward answering the following question: Is affirmative action destroying America?

An important factor in this essay is the criterion or criteria that will determine the answer to the question. One approach to the determination of the basis for answering the question is to base the answer on the employment-related effects of the application of affirmative action programs and laws. This approach is frequently applied by both proponents of affirmative action and opponents of affirmative action, wherein each side of the issue cites statistics to "prove their point". A second approach to the determination of the basis for answering the question is to base the answer on evidence of social dissension present in the American population that may be attributed to opposing positions associated with the concept and practice of affirmative action in the United States. This second approach is the approached applied in this essay.

The next issue to address is the determination of a valid way to assess divisions in American society that may be attributed to disagreements about the concept and application of affirmative action in the United States. For purposes of this essay, the data required to answer the question were obtaine

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in both men and women.á Proceeding from these assumptions, researchers frequently assume that employment policies based upon performance or potential performance would result in an integrated workforce in which a firm would acquire and retain only the most efficient workers.á In the everyday world, however, such assumptions are seldom valid.á Thus, employers are tempted to continue practices that have the effect of defeating affirmative action objectives (Garrison-Wade & Lewis, 2004). In actual practice, knowledge levels and skill levels are not comparable between all racial and ethnic groups, or between men and women within the context of the work force (Nadler, 2002).á The underlying reasons for such disparities may include the lingering effects of past discrimination, societal imposed roles, the presence of discrimination in contemporary society, the distribution of abilities and motivations to learn, or other factors. Thus, problems develop when government regulators assume that discrimination is present within a firm because gender, racial, and ethnic groups are not represented in the firm in the same proportions in which they are represented in the general population. Typically, government regulators impose the applicati
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2027
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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