AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONdivided former allies on civil rights issues, in par-
ticular American Jews, normally liberal, from blacks.
Jews oppose quotas in admissions to medical and
law schools because they were in the past victims of
very low quotas imposed by American universities.
Affirmative action under various names and
legal arrangements is found in many countries: in
India, to provide opportunities to scheduled castes,
scheduled tribes, and other backward classes, where
different requirements operate at the national
level and within the states and where some degree
of preference has existed in some areas and for
some purposes as far back as the 1920s (Galanter
1984); in Malaysia, to protect the native Malay
population; in Sri Lanka, to benefit the majority
Sri Lankan population (Sowell 1990); and in Aus-
tralia and Canada, where milder forms of affirma-
tive action than those found in the United States
operate. It is now being raised in the countries of
Western Europe, which have received since World
War II large numbers of immigrants who now
form distinctive communities who lag behind the
native populations in education and occupational
status. The policies called affirmative action in the
United States are called ‘‘reservations’’ in India,
and ‘‘positive discrimination’’ in some other countries.
There is considerable debate as to the effects
of affirmative action policies and how weighty
these can be as against other factors affecting
employment, promotion, and educational achieve-
ment (Leonard 1984a; 1984b). A summary judg-
ment is difficult to make. Black leaders generally
consider affirmative action an essential founda-
tion for black progress, but some black intellectu-
als and publicists have been skeptical. Black lead-
ers often denounce opponents of affirmative action
as racists, hidden or otherwise, yet it is clear that
many opponents simply find the use, required or
otherwise, of racial and sexual characteristics to
determine job and promotion opportunities and
admission to selective college programs in contra-
diction with the basic liberal principles of treating
individuals without regard to race, national origin,
color, and sex. Affirmative action has undoubtedly
increased the number of blacks who hold good
jobs and gain admission to selective programs. But
it has also had other costs in the form of increased
racial tensions. It has coincided with a period in
which a pattern of black advancement occupation-
ally and educationally since World War II has been
surprisingly slowed. The defenders of affirmative
action argue that this is because it has not yet been
applied vigorously enough. The opponents argue
that the concentration on affirmative action en-
courages the neglect of the key factors that pro-
mote educational and occupational progress, which
are basically the acquisition of qualifications for
better jobs and superior educational programs.(SEE
ALSO: Discrimination; Equality of Opportunity)REFERENCES
Belz, Herman 1990 Equality Transformed: A Quarter-
Century of Affirmative Action. New Brunswick, N.J.:
Transaction Books.
Bowen, William G., and Derek Bok 1990 The Shape of the
River: Long-term Consequences of Considering Race in
College and University Admissions. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press.
Bunzel, John H., and Jeffrey K. D. Au 1987 ‘‘Diversity or
Discrimination? Asian Americans in College.’’ The
Public Interest 87:49–62.
Code of Federal Regulations 1990 Title 41, section 60-2.10,
pp. 121–122.
Galanter, Marc 1984 Competing Equalities: Law and the
Backward Classes in India. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Glazer, Nathan 1987 Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic
Inequality and Public Policy. Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
vard University Press. (Originally published 1975
and 1978, New York: Basic Books.)
LaNoue, George R. 1993 ‘‘Social Science and Minority
Set-Asides.’’The Public Interest 110:49–62.
Leonard, Jonathan 1984a ‘‘The Impact of Affirmative
Action on Employment.’’ Working Paper No. 1,310.
Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic
Research.
———1984b ‘‘What Promises Are Worth: The Impact
of Affirmative Action Goals.’’ Working Paper no.1,346.
Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic
Research. (Also published in Journal of Human Re-
sources (1985) 20:3–20.)
McWhirter, Darien A. 1996 The End of Affirmative Action:
Where Do We Go From Here? New York: Birch Lane Press.
Orfield, Gary, and Edward Miller (eds.) 1998 Chilling
Admissions: The Affirmative Action Crisis and the Search
for Alternatives. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Educa-
tion Publishing Group.
Skrentny, John David 1996 The Ironies of Affirmative
Action. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.