Why do people think Affirmative Action only applies for minorities?

Question

Affirmative action does not only affect minorty races, it also allows women, the disabled, veterans, and any other minority class to have a chance a job, place, government contract, etc.

We all KNOW how women get paid 76 cents per every man's dollar. If there was NO affirmative action, women wouldn't even be CEO of their companies and would have to sleep their way to the top. I don't want to go back in a era like that! IT"S BEEN PROVEN THAT WOMEN GET PAID LESS THAN MEN!

let's be real, people discriminate against disabled people or people with no limbs. We need AA to give these people a chance.

Answer 1

It is easier to explain the success of minorities when you believe they are inherently inferior to you and are truly incapable of individual or collective success. I recall a personal situation, two, when I worked menial jobs. Each job found me being accused of benefiting from affirmative Action. Job number one was that of a lowly sales associate. Job number 2 was as a security guard. Two jobs that Americans do not want to do. You have to love the arrogance and ignorance. A while back I got stuck with doing a research paper and presentation on Affirmative Action. It was sobering seeing that the vast majority of the beneficiaries have been white women, and that all non white groups came in a distant second, third, fourth and fifth place. AA is bigger than race though, handicap people, the elderly and every other person of need benefits from it. In its current state it has become a joke.

Racial minorities are always the easy scapegoat, especially when there is so much aversive racism in this Great Country.

Answer 2

I probably could not disagree with you more but an in depth debate is beyond the scope of this forum. I would ask you to look more carefully into the 76 cents figure, however. That is one of those statistics that is bandied about a great deal which people simply accept without carefull research. As Joe McCarthy once observed anything repeated three times in Washington becomes a fact. An observation he infamously exploited.

Men are willing to do work that is regarded as undesirable by most women since it is dirty, dangerous or both e.g. sanitation worker, construction etc. The market is willing to pay a premium for such work. If you compare the salaries of men and women in the same occupation with similar work experience I promise you, you will be very surprised at what you learn.

Answer 3

Women get paid less then men for many reasons, most of which deals with the fact that women are on average more willing to work less paying jobs, more so then men. Affirmative Action is nothing more than reverse discrimination, no a person should not be denied a job because of their race, gender, ethnicity, or a disability, but they should not be chosen over a more qualified individual of the majority just because they are a member of a minority ethnicity.

Answer 4

I think affirmative action is brilliant, it allows persons such as black people and disabled people to be given the chance to make a success in their lives, instead of being scapegoated and reduced to living on the scrapheap, because they don't fit the stereotype of being a 6 ft blue eyed blond. There are lots of people who need a foot in the door and affirmative action allows them to get their foot in. If society was not so racist, then maybe we would not need affirmative action, but then again you cannot count you blessings, on society hiring people of all colours which is based on merit.

Answer 5

The White Male has been doing a pretty good job running the world since 1492. Why mess up a good thing?

Answer 6

I believe affirmitive action is abused by assholes. I could see it helping in a few cases of extreme racism or sexism or disabled-ism, but does it really mean i have to hire someone who has two amputated arms for my tree cutting business?? would a women have to allow a guy to work in victorias secrets, i know a ton of them who'd probably want to apply. Would you hire a black drugie (ok i know thats steriotiping) to work in a preschool. see in some cases there are reasons beyond the -isms that you dont hire someone.

Answer 7

You answered your own question. It applies to minorities but not just racial minorities.