Affirmative Action & Privilege

Compounds of Privilege:

Taken from the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development (Black & Stone, 2005)

Privilege is defined as having five main compounds:

1)that it's a special advantage; neither common nor universal 2) it's granted, not earned 3) it's a right or entitlement that is related to a preferred status or rank 4) it's exercised for the benefit of the recipient and to exclude others 5) privileged status is often [not always] outside of the awareness of the person possessing it

As our group is interested in how concepts of privilege within specific groups create and reinforce notions of "us" and them and as a minority female; some could argue that Affirmative Action may have awarded me privileges over other groups of people AND that in these situations where I could be selected for a program to fill a spot for a member of a minority-I am accepting and reinforcing that there is an "us" or a "them".

Defining Affirmative Action:

Race-neutral, gender-neutral assurance against actual discrimination. (American Association for Affirmative Action)

"Affirmative Action is comprised of programs and policies that grant favorable treatment on the basis of race and gender to government defined "disadvantaged" individuals" (American Association for Affirmative Action)

Brief History of Affirmative Action Taken from UCIrvine's website:

Executive Order 10925
On March 6, 1961 President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925, which included a provision that government contractors "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." The intent of this executive order was to affirm the government's commitment to equal opportunity for all qualified persons, and to take positive action to strengthen efforts to realize true equal opportunity for all. This executive order was superseded by Executive Order 11246 in 1965.
Executive Order 11246
On September 24, 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11246, prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin by those organizations receiving federal contracts and subcontracts. In 1967, President Johnson amended the order to include sex on the list of attributes. Executive Order 11246 also requires federal contractors to take affirmative action to promote the full realization of equal opportunity for women and minorities. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), under the Department of Labor, monitors this requirement for all federal contractors, including all UC campuses, and has developed regulations to which these contractors must adhere. For federal contractors employing more than 50 people and having federal contracts totaling more than $50,000, compliance with these regulations includes disseminating and enforcing a nondiscrimination policy, establishing a written affirmative action plan and placement goals for women and minorities, and implementing action-oriented programs for accomplishing these goals. In addition, an official of the organization must be assigned responsibility for implementation of equal employment opportunity and the affirmative action program.
An excerpt from the executive order follows (Part II, Subpart B, Sec. 202(1)): The contractor will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The contractor will take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Such action shall include, but not be limited to the following: employment, upgrading, demotion, or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and selection for training, including apprenticeship.

Example of Why Issue Is so Controversial:

The main opposition of Affirmative Action belong to mostly white (students) who argue that they were not selected from a pool of applicants because they didn't belong to a minority group even though they had better credentials

Others will argue that minorities are not provided the same privileges as white students earlier on so never had the chance to, say, score as high on tests

Question:

Do you believe Affirmative Action awards necessary privileges to minorities? Or is it a form of "reverse discrimination?"

Does Affirmative Action seperate groups into "us" vs. "them"?

Do you think the concept of "us" and "them" are negative?

http://www.maine.edu/pdf/aaplan.pdf (USM's Stance on Affirmative Action)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saIVafSC38k (Obama Speaks About Affirmative Action)

FMI Visit:

http://www.affirmativeaction.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1x6Tx5j21Y

An introduction to privilege

In this blog, our group hopes to discuss issues of privilege as they relate to different cultures. McIntosh (1998) discussed White privilege and male privilege in her article White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies. Our text discusses the idea that “whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’ (cited in McIntosh, 2000, p. 32).” The idea of privilege is one that intrigued us. Obviously, White males can claim privilege because of their gender and skin color. But we wondered what privileges may exist to members of other cultural groups. What privileges, if any, does membership in other cultural groups afford? To what extent does any concept of privilege create and reinforce a notion of “us” and “them”? Our hope is that by examining these issues, we can all become more aware of our own world views and cultural experiences and the privileges we are afforded because of them.