Affirmative Action Reconsidered

Archive Report

Retrenchment under Reagan

Existing Program's Official Re-Evaluation

Affirmative action to overcome or prevent racial and sexual discrimination in employment and education has been extremely controversial since the first program was started in 1964. The business community has been particularly critical, saying that affirmative action requires time-consuming personnel work and often results in discrimination of another sort: hiring women or minority applicants who are less qualified than competing white males. Many political conservatives go further, saying that it is nothing more than an unconstitutional government-mandated quota system.

Affirmative action still has a legion of defenders who argue that it is a necessary corrective to centuries of job restrictions, but they feel more embattled than ever. It is no surprise that affirmative action has come under fire from the ...

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