affirmative action

(noun)

A policy or program providing advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against, with the aim of creating a more egalitarian society through preferential access to education, employment, health care, social welfare, etc.

Related Terms

Examples of affirmative action in the following topics:

  • Affirmative Action

    • Affirmative action is a subject of controversy.
    • This argument supports the idea of solely class-based affirmative action.
    • Other opponents of affirmative action call it reverse discrimination, saying affirmative action requires the very discrimination it is seeking to eliminate.
    • According to these opponents, this contradiction makes affirmative action counter-productive.
    • Some opponents believe, among other things, that affirmative action devalues the accomplishments of people who belong to a group it is supposed to help, therefore making affirmative action counter-productive.

  • Minority Groups

    • Affirmative action is a controversial issue, which refers to policies that take factors including race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group.
    • Affirmative action can, for example, take the form of a government program to provide immigrant or minority groups who primarily speak a marginalized language with extra teaching in the majority language, so that they are better able to compete for places at university or for jobs.

  • Racism

    • One response to racial disparity in the U.S. has been affirmative action.
    • Affirmative action is the practice of favoring or benefiting members of a particular race in areas such as college admissions and workplace advancement, in an attempt to create atmospheres of racial diversity and racial equality.

  • Discrimination Against Individuals

    • Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on his/her membership (or perceived membership) in a certain group or category, and involves actual actions taken towards that individual.
    • Though what constitutes sex discrimination varies between countries, it essentially refers to an adverse action taken against a person based on their perceived sex, gender, and/or gender identity.
    • Reverse discrimination may also be used to highlight the discrimination inherent in affirmative action programs.

  • Educational Reform in the U.S.

    • From the 1950s to the 1970s, many of the proposed and implemented reforms in U.S. education stemmed from the Civil Rights Movement and related trends; examples include ending racial segregation and busing for the purpose of desegregation, affirmative action, and banning of school prayer.
    • Educational reforms during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s focused on civil rights, especially desegregation and affirmative action.

  • Social Constructionism

    • Drawing on Symbolic Interactionist insights about the ongoing production and affirmation of meaning, social constructionism aims to discover the ways that individuals and groups create their perceived reality.
    • Social constructionism focuses on the description of institutions and actions and not on analyzing cause and effect.

  • Group Dynamics

    • At the same time, researchers explore the ways that groups are formed, negotiated, and adjusted by the actions of individual beings interacting with one another on a newfound and/or regular basis.
    • Third, group members must establish ritual occasions or opportunities to affirm our membership in the group.
    • To do this, first you will go to other members of that religion to learn what the religion means, what its people believe, what items they consider important, and what actions are allowed for members - all of these would be identity codes.
    • By adopting these identity codes correctly in the presence of other group members, you would gain affirmation wherein existing group members approve of your performance of these identity codes and welcome you into the group (in some cases, there may even be a formal ceremony where you profess your membership and other group members affirm that profession).
    • In all such cases, people engage in identity work to construct, affirm, and signify membership within social groups.

  • Sexual Behavior Since Kinsey

    • In its opinion, the Supreme Court held that the government could not dictate the use of contraception by married couples because such action would be a violation of the right to marital privacy implied in the Bill of Rights.
    • Connecticut affirmed women's right to use birth control.

  • Sociological Theories of Deviance

    • This is an important function that affirms the cultural values and norms of a society for the members of that society.
    • Their actions and perspectives demonstrate the use of conflict theory to explain social deviance.
    • Labeling theory refers to the idea that individuals become deviant when a deviant label is applied to them; they adopt the label by exhibiting the behaviors, actions, and attitudes associated with the label.
    • This process of recasting past actions in light of a current deviant identity is referred to as "retrospective labeling. " A clear example of retrospective labeling is seen in how the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre were recast after the incident took place.

  • Symbolic Interactionism

    • The basic notion of symbolic interactionism is that human action and interaction are understandable only through the exchange of meaningful communication or symbols.
    • 3) social action results from a "joint action", or the fitting together of individual lines of action
    • Stated another way, Symbolic Interactionism argues that people become selves by learning and internalizing the symbolic materials of the social and historical context and culture they are born into and raised within (e.g., the individual is formed by the society), and then act back upon and alter societies (e.g., norms, cultures and structures) by deploying the symbolic resources at their disposal throughout the course of their ongoing lives (e.g., the society is formed by the joint action of individuals).
    • As a result, Symbolic Interactionists argue against the division of society into micro, meso, and macro forms, and instead focus on the ways that interconnected people continuously construct, alter, signify, and affirm themselves and others in ways that create, sustain, and change existing social structures.