The main purpose of affirmative action is to fight for equality in all the sectors of a country’s economy thereby being a non-discriminatory measure. The term caters for the interests of women and the minorities in the society. Affirmative action was fully initiated during President J.F. Kennedy’s Executive order 10925. The action proposed the hiring of people for different job posts regardless of their sex, race, gender, ethnicity or religion. Different policies came up that seemed to support affirmative action because the results of such policies proved to be worth. By incorporating people into job posts regardless of all the mentioned aspects, production in the industries increased. One of the major reasons for this effect was the fact that there was diversification of production skills and more manpower as well.
Some of the nations in the world that have been known to apply the policies of affirmative action include the United States of America, Brazil, Japan, China, Canada, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Finland and France. From this view point, it can be clearly observed that these countries are in the different continents of the world. This gives the implication that affirmative action is a critical issue that is being initiated in all the countries in all the countries in the globe.
Despite the unending efforts to promote affirmative action in the global arena, some nations have dismissed the measures involved in the policy and have termed it as being color blind. These countries have continued to practice discrimination especially on racial grounds. These countries require divine intervention because the world is composed of mankind who is a special kind of being despite the color, race, ethnicity or religion. However, some of these nations have been hit by the realization that equality is an important aspect for any country’s economic growth and development.
Just like any other policy, affirmative action has faced different forms of opposition from different members of the society. Some of the reasons given by the people who tend to oppose affirmative action are vague. George Sher is one of the people well known to oppose affirmative action. The reason he gives as to oppose affirmative action is that the act tends to devalue the efforts of the some of the successful groups in the society. Other people who oppose affirmative action try to prove that the act is a form of reverse discrimination that does not cater for the welfare of the entire society. Such people argue that affirmative action has negative effects in addition to not accomplishing its goals in the society and the entire nation as well. Further arguments by these people reveal that affirmative action is a form of replacing old wrongs with new wrongs, under rates the success of the minorities and gives the misleading notion that there are disadvantaged groups in the society.
Affirmative action is a measure that should be globally put into practice so as to protect the welfare of mankind. This is because discrimination has been known to affect many activities that would upgrade the social, political and economical status of different countries. The act’s advocacy for equality and justice is recommendable and should be applied in any circumstance that arises. Despite having opponents in the global scene, efforts to encourage affirmative action acts should not be discouraged. This is because the positive effects of adopting the act are many compared to the negative ones. Countries are encouraged to fight discrimination in any and every way possible and adopting affirmative action acts is one of the ways. Induction programs whose basic aim is affirmative action should be promoted and discriminatory acts would highly decline because they are acts which depict inhumanity.
