Expert: John Fuller - 7/30/2008

Question
What are the goals of affirmative action? Why has it been so controversial?

Answer
Hi Jessica,

The goals of affirmative action are to ensure that everyone has the equal opportunity for a job and that representation closely resembles the number of qualified people in jobs within a company.  For example let's say you have 100 positions as a technician and the local recruiting area has residents who are 60 percent white, 30 percent black, and 5 percent Hispanic and 5 percent Asian Americans and who are fully qualified as technicians.  

If you are employing 80 percent white and only 5 percent Black, etc., then you do not have what appears to be fairly equal representation.  Your goal would be to work toward the 30 percent Black representation in your company and do so WITHOUT quotas.  The key word is qualified applicants.  It is not just the percentage of underrepresented residents but those who are actually qualified for a certain position who reside in your recruiting area.  These figures for qualified individuals are obtained through Census and Department of Labor statistics.  

What makes Affirmative Action controversial is the lack of understanding companies have as far as what AA is.  What it is not is a quota system but a plan that shows good faith efforts to hire the qualified applicant percentages in the recruiting area that are qualified for positions within your company.  Do you have a right to hire anyone you want?  Absolutely, you always have the right to hire a person based upon their qualifications regardless of any underrepresentation.  However, minority talent is becoming scarce for companies and it is prudent business practice to hire qualified applicants from all backgrounds.  

If you have further questions, please feel free to ask!

John