The affirmative action program consists in give advantages in education, employment or access to population groups that historically had been a minority, with disabilities or disadvantages against the considered population majority. One of the origins of the affirmative action was the "40 acres and a mule" program proposed by General William Tecumseh Sherman to benefit to the black color population of the state of Georgia (United States of America) after the United States Civil War. Today there are several examples of positive discrimination in education, employment, and elected officials. In India, the Universities apply a positive discrimination with a 50% quota for economically disadvantaged students. In the United Kingdom, the country applies the Equality Act 2010 and the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 with a differentiation between the equality of outcome and provision. The United States of America applies the affirmative action in colleges and universities assigning minimum quotas considering race and economic group (MIT, 2016).
The problem of the affirmative action program is that it may provoke a reverse discrimination. The reverse discrimination consists in a form of discrimination against individuals of a majority group in favor or individuals of a historically disadvantaged group. The use of affirmative action must be temporary and not permanent programs because the idea of the affirmative action is to offer opportunities to a minority group that did not have opportunities in the past. Once, the previously disadvantaged group had full integration in the society; it is necessary to eliminate the affirmative action program because it may affect the group that previously was the majority. For example, affirmative programs in universities considering race are not necessary because there are examples of the success of black and Latino groups in Universities. Today, it is necessary to develop affirmative action programs for refugees and other disadvantaged group and abandon the race criteria of affirmative action.
Reference List
MIT. (2016). What is an Affirmative Action Plan? Retrieved from Mit Human Resources: http://hrweb.mit.edu/diversity/affirmative-action-plan-admins/what-is-an-aaplan
