A634.4.4.RB - Is Affirmative Action Ethical?
Because it is such a loaded issue, affirmative action can be a tough one to gauge for worth and impact. On the one hand, it’s founded on good intentions; but on the other, it’s far from a perfect science or system. I “get” both sides of that coin, and I appreciate the conflict between trying to do what’s “right,” but trying to do so smartly.
All of that aside, though, affirmative action is ethical in my mind. A consequentialist might argue in support of it because it positively impacts a greater number of people than it supposedly hurts. For this particular issue, that’s the lens through which I see it, too.
The greatest argument against affirmative action, to me, is that it hurts those who have done no wrong. This argument is what I want to focus on most here, because it encapsulates a couple of the others, which is what gives it its power. The logic is that a more qualified job candidate can be (or will be) passed up in order to give a job to an African-American candidate — not due to merit, but because the government says the employer has to. This is compelling because it plays to our collective sense of fairness — but is that enough to deem an initiative a failure?
Until there is substantial data that show a pattern of better, more qualified candidates losing out to worse, less qualified candidates, this argument is mostly emotional, which does it no favors. But worse, the argument is just another reflection of the majority’s inability to see patterns of passive, institutionalized discrimination that minority members must regularly rise above in society.
As a majority member, it’s super easy to believe that racism is dead in America. Whites have black friends. For the most part, we no longer see overt signs of bigotry in public: no exclusions from shops/restaurants based on race, no (or at least much fewer) loud racial slurs. But those things are signs of progress toward, not of success over, racism as an institution. Insulated members of the majority have a limited view of the system as a whole — they have to: That’s the very nature of insulation. "The trappings of power only serve to feed the dangerous illusions people already have about themselves" (Kramer, 2003).
But the issue of a candidate being “passed over” for a job can serve as an even larger sign of racial rifts that exist in our country. The mere fact that a white applicant automatically assumes that he is better and more qualified than a black candidate shows a sense of entitlement among the majority class, and it doesn’t take into account the less measurable considerations that pop up throughout a hiring process: things like a candidate’s personality, workplace “fit,” and perceptions of potential. For so long, whites have gotten the job, and they’ve risen through their careers quickly, and that pattern can create a subconscious assumption that life will always be this way. "Despite their best intentions, [members of the majority] may find that every mirror held up to them says, in effect, you are the fairest of them all" (Kramer, 2003).
Affirmative action, though, works to take chunks out of that longstanding narrative. It works to reshape it. “Blacks have been historically disadvantaged; the nature of the US institutions perpetuates that disadvantage. Affirmative action is one weapon in the battle to overcome that disadvantage” (LaFollette, p. 92). Is the system without flaws? No. Do some “better” candidates sometimes lose out to “worse” minority candidates? Maybe. But are African-American workers better off now than they were before, without it? The answer to that has to, undoubtedly, “Yes.” The hope, then, is that, in time, workplaces will become so diverse that the initiative will no longer be needed (or even thought about, for that matter).
“No legal regulation, no matter how valuable, is perfect. … However, if the system usually gets it right, that is enough” (LaFollette, p. 98). To me, being forced to face our patterns and consider other alternatives is “getting it right.” Facing past demons and acknowledging that our work isn’t done just yet is also “getting it right.” “Real change requires hard work, attention to detail and perseverance” (LaFollette, p. 80) — and at this point in history, we’ve put in the work and attended to the detail. Now, it’s time to get down to the business of persevering.
All of that aside, though, affirmative action is ethical in my mind. A consequentialist might argue in support of it because it positively impacts a greater number of people than it supposedly hurts. For this particular issue, that’s the lens through which I see it, too.
The greatest argument against affirmative action, to me, is that it hurts those who have done no wrong. This argument is what I want to focus on most here, because it encapsulates a couple of the others, which is what gives it its power. The logic is that a more qualified job candidate can be (or will be) passed up in order to give a job to an African-American candidate — not due to merit, but because the government says the employer has to. This is compelling because it plays to our collective sense of fairness — but is that enough to deem an initiative a failure?
Until there is substantial data that show a pattern of better, more qualified candidates losing out to worse, less qualified candidates, this argument is mostly emotional, which does it no favors. But worse, the argument is just another reflection of the majority’s inability to see patterns of passive, institutionalized discrimination that minority members must regularly rise above in society.
As a majority member, it’s super easy to believe that racism is dead in America. Whites have black friends. For the most part, we no longer see overt signs of bigotry in public: no exclusions from shops/restaurants based on race, no (or at least much fewer) loud racial slurs. But those things are signs of progress toward, not of success over, racism as an institution. Insulated members of the majority have a limited view of the system as a whole — they have to: That’s the very nature of insulation. "The trappings of power only serve to feed the dangerous illusions people already have about themselves" (Kramer, 2003).
But the issue of a candidate being “passed over” for a job can serve as an even larger sign of racial rifts that exist in our country. The mere fact that a white applicant automatically assumes that he is better and more qualified than a black candidate shows a sense of entitlement among the majority class, and it doesn’t take into account the less measurable considerations that pop up throughout a hiring process: things like a candidate’s personality, workplace “fit,” and perceptions of potential. For so long, whites have gotten the job, and they’ve risen through their careers quickly, and that pattern can create a subconscious assumption that life will always be this way. "Despite their best intentions, [members of the majority] may find that every mirror held up to them says, in effect, you are the fairest of them all" (Kramer, 2003).
Affirmative action, though, works to take chunks out of that longstanding narrative. It works to reshape it. “Blacks have been historically disadvantaged; the nature of the US institutions perpetuates that disadvantage. Affirmative action is one weapon in the battle to overcome that disadvantage” (LaFollette, p. 92). Is the system without flaws? No. Do some “better” candidates sometimes lose out to “worse” minority candidates? Maybe. But are African-American workers better off now than they were before, without it? The answer to that has to, undoubtedly, “Yes.” The hope, then, is that, in time, workplaces will become so diverse that the initiative will no longer be needed (or even thought about, for that matter).
“No legal regulation, no matter how valuable, is perfect. … However, if the system usually gets it right, that is enough” (LaFollette, p. 98). To me, being forced to face our patterns and consider other alternatives is “getting it right.” Facing past demons and acknowledging that our work isn’t done just yet is also “getting it right.” “Real change requires hard work, attention to detail and perseverance” (LaFollette, p. 80) — and at this point in history, we’ve put in the work and attended to the detail. Now, it’s time to get down to the business of persevering.
References
LaFollette, H. (2007). The Practice of Ethics.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
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