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Affirmative action (AA)

Affirmative action (AA). Points covered: Compensatory Argument Corrective Argument ‘Reverse discrimination’ Diversity/role model argument The Allan Bakke case. A Few Facts. In the US, 8.7% of bachelor, 7.8% of master and 5% of Ph.D. graduates were black (year 2000).

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Affirmative action (AA)

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  1. Affirmative action (AA) Points covered: Compensatory Argument Corrective Argument ‘Reverse discrimination’ Diversity/role model argument The Allan Bakke case

  2. A Few Facts In the US, 8.7% of bachelor, 7.8% of master and 5% of Ph.D. graduates were black (year 2000). Percentage of blacks in total US population: 12.4%

  3. Another fact Of 40.000 university professors in Canada (2008-09), 34.9% were female. Of the 13.000 full professors, 21.8% were female. Female professors’ salaries ≈ 90% of male professors’ salaries.

  4. One more fact Norway: publicly listed corporations must have 40% representation of women on boards of directors.

  5. Compensatory Arguments Principle of compensation: • A victim, V, to whom injustice has been done. • A perpetrator, P, of the injustice • Compensation, C, which redresses the injustice. To compensate for the wrong done to V, P pays C to V. [N.B. Compensatory arguments are backward-looking.]

  6. Problems • Over- and under-inclusivity: AA compensates some who have not suffered injustice and fails to compensate some who have suffered. • Is it feasible to make perpetrators pay compensation? • What is the right level of compensation?

  7. Corrective Arguments Corrective arguments identify current (not past) injustice and seek to reform social institutions so as to eliminate discrimination.

  8. Reverse Discrimination (RD) RD is a pejorative term for AA. Opponents of AA say: If discrimination against, e.g., blacks in the past is wrong, then so is discrimination against white males today.

  9. Counterargument to RD thesis Discrimination against blacks and women in the past is different to ‘discrimination’ against whites in AA programmes. Why? Past discrimination was based on contempt for, and negative stereotypes of, the excluded group’; such people were thought to be “inferior” to others.

  10. Diversity arguments More diversity in education is a goal towards which AA programmes can strive.

  11. Role model arguments If members of previously excluded groups become better represented in, e.g., universities, they can serve a roles models to students from the same group who encourage students to pursue a career in the same profession.

  12. The Allan Bakke case Civil Rights Act (1964) Title VI - Nondiscrimination In Federally Assisted Programs “no person … shall be excluded from participation in or otherwise discriminated against on the ground of race, color, or national origin under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”.

  13. Bakke (cont.) Fourteenth Amendment (US Constitution) No state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”

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