The article expresses the opinion that affirmative action is required to “rectify past discriminatory actions that prohibited ethnic minorities from equal access”, and that past injustices are still affecting members of that particular group today. It is right to acknowledge such acts and the flow effect they still have on members of these ethnic groups in society today but is it morally right for a member of a non-minority ethnic group to suffer to correct these wrongs? It does not seem fair that an individual who played no part in historical injustices should have to make amends for their ancestors (Sandel, 2011). A further argument against the statement made in the article is that by enforcing affirmative action to rectify past injustices, is it not just encouraging the one thing that affirmative action has set out to correct, racism. Whichever way we look at it, affirmative action is the exclusion of individuals based on their race and there is a fine line between helping rectify the past and the creation of further discrimination.
The article further supports their point by stating affirmative action is about “compensating those who lacked the opportunities that everyone else had due to their ethnic background”, this statement highlights another issue, ethnicity is not the sole indicator of an individual with a lack of opportunities. Just because a person is part of an ethnic minority does not mean they are disadvantaged, there are many successful individuals from minority races just as there are disadvantaged people in non-minority races. Ethnicity is not the only factor that should determine whether an individual is considered disadvantaged, there are many other important factors such as upbringing, financial situation, health, and intelligence that can impact a person’s success in society, it is not fair that affirmative action does not consider other factors when determining whether someone needs an extra hand in life.
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The article states “Affirmative action is about evening the playing field”, this view can do more damage to minority groups than benefit, and the enforcement of affirmative action to ‘even the playing field’ can create prejudice against the minority groups, P Burstein summarised this by writing “Special programs reinforce common stereotypes since they imply that certain groups need special help to succeed in life” (Burstein, Pg. 378). For example, when students are aware that the school they are attending has an affirmative action policy for enrolments, they may view a student from a minority group as only being accepted because they are part of a minority group and not of merit. Minority applicants who have better test scores than their non-minority peers, who would have been accepted regardless of their ethnicity, are deprived of their successes as they can be viewed as not being accepted on their intelligence but instead only that they fulfill a quota the school has to accept a certain amount of ethnic minorities, this leads to feelings of self-doubt, judgment and isolation amongst their peers. Affirmative action creates a stigma on ethnic minorities, placing them at a disadvantage even before they have started school.
The article discusses the benefits to majority groups of exposure to minority groups, stating “Interactions with minorities are beneficial for the social and personal growth of non-minorities”, as humans it is true that we benefit from interactions with others, we can learn new skills and ways of thinking but do we only gain these benefits from interacting with different ethnic groups or can the same benefits be gained through interacting with a diverse group of people, with no relation to their ethnic background (Sandel, 2011). Exposure to diversity does not just come from interaction with different ethnic groups, people within the same ethnic group possess different skills, life experiences, and traits which create a diverse social environment that people can grow and learn from without the need for affirmative action.
A large portion of this article is focused on the benefits of affirmative action for non-minority groups, when making a case for affirmative action I do not think this is a strong argument because it contradicts the purpose of affirmative action, which is to benefit minority groups at the sacrifice of the non-minority. The benefit to non-minorities should be a positive consequence and not the main reason to implement an affirmative action policy.
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