Affirmative Action: What it is and isn’t

There has been a lot of buzz in courts and media concerning Affirmative Action. Most people have two reactions when hearing the term AA. It is either outright revulsion or one of thankfulness in regard to social justice. Regardless of where a person may be in their feelings about Affirmative Action, however, the big issue is understanding what it is and what it is not.

Affirmative Action in the simplest of definitions is recruiting and outreach. The federal government requires employers who receive over $50,000 in federal funds to have an Affirmative Action plan. That means in exchange for federal dollars an organization or institution must show that they have a recruiting and outreach program in place for underrepresented groups.

Recruiting is achieved by having a legitimate search process that advertises in local and national media, invites all qualified applicants to apply, fairly evaluates their credentials through an interview process and makes the selection based on the skills and abilities of the candidate.

Outreach can be accomplished in many ways. Advertising in media specifically targeted for diverse groups, making contacts in schools that have large pools of underrepresented groups, having mentoring programs designed to cultivate and encourage diverse groups to consider an organization or institution.

The biggest myth of Affirmative Action is that it is a quota system to give unqualified individuals an unfair advantage in the job market or admission to universities or job programs. Enemies of Affirmative Action use this myth constantly to attack AA policies and programs. Racial or gender based quotas are illegal. However, having a goal to ensure that hiring or admission policies are fair, just and that all citizens have access to jobs is not.

What most people today do not realize is that prior to Affirmative Action many people, especially minorities and women, were kept out of the job market or certain industries due to illegal practices that Title VII and Affirmative Action addressed. Most today do not realize that the most common position in a business office–that of a secretary–was held mainly by men at the turn of the 20th century. During World War II women entered the work force because many men were away fighting overseas.

Further into the 1920s and and 1930s, a woman schoolteacher who got married or pregnant had to quit her job. African Americans were specifically not hired due to their race, even though many had equal or advanced qualifications for the jobs they were denied.

During the 1960s, university systems in the South were desegregated, in most cases by intervention of the National Guard. This is a sad commentary for a country that espouses liberty and justice for all.

At the University of Nevada, Reno and in other organizations Affirmative Action is vital to ensuring best practices and that we hire the best workers. Further, it is the law. To the critics of AA programs, I suggest that they look at our country’s history, past and present to understand why Affirmative Action is vital and needed.

John Burnett, the director of the University’s Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office, can be reached at jaburn@unr.edu.

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