Myth: Affirmative action means quotas.
Fact: Quotas are illegal -- AA merely establishes the true qualified talent pool.
Summary
Quotas are illegal in the United States, except on rare occasions
when judges order them to correct blatant discrimation. Affirmative action
works by setting flexible
goals -- which are based on the percentage of qualified
minorities and women in the region. A company that searches in
good faith but fails to find qualified minorities or women is
not penalized for their failure.
Argument
Affirmative action is not a quota system, which would be
illegal in the United States. The only exception is when a judge
orders a quota on a company that has been found guilty of extreme
or blatant discrimination in employment.
What is affirmative action, then? It is really a system of goals.
Companies are encouraged to search in good faith for qualified
minority or female employees. Their goal -- that is, the percentage
of minorities and women they are seeking to hire -- is primarily
determined by the percentage of qualified minorities and women
in the region. (There are other factors). A company incurs no
legal penalty if it makes a good-faith search but still cannot
meet its goals.
Some critics of affirmative action claim this is still a quota
system, since it quantifies the number of minorities and women
that a company is supposed to hire. But notice that this system
does not require a company to hire unqualified people to meet
its goals. Also note that goals are flexible, since they are derived
from the (changing) number of qualified minority and female workers
in the region. Also note that if the company fails to meet its
goal, the goal is simply re-established the next year -- and the
next and the next, as long as the company fails to find qualified
people. This is far different from a rigid quota system, in which
a company must hire a certain percentage of minorities
and women, or else be penalized by a judge.
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