Discussion: View Thread

Hello Everyone,

I major in I/O research and now is reading a book concerning retail
management. Can anyone explain what "affirmative action" is? I met it in
the passage on the legal environment of retail management.

Thanks a lot!

Chongwei

At 07:10 PM 11/10/98 +0800, WANG Chongwei wrote:

>Hello Everyone,
>
>I major in I/O research and now is reading a book concerning retail
>management. Can anyone explain what "affirmative action" is? I met it in
>the passage on the legal environment of retail management.

I must qualify this by saying that I am not a lawyer, but I have written
and taught management training courses on EEO and Affirmative Action in
consultation with EEO investigators and lawyers. Here is a brief intro to
the concept of Affirmative Action. I am confident that other members of
the list will correct any errors I may make.

Affirmative Action is a USA legal term that grew out of the civil rights
struggle during the second half of this century. The US Civil Rights Act
of 1964, as supplemented by other laws, has two broad thrusts as regards
employment without regard to membership in a "protected class" of persons
(the "protected classes" being those groups named in the laws--race,
religion, color [not the same as race], handicapped status, veteran status,
sex, and, in some states and cities, sexual preference and appearance):

EEO or Equal Employment Opportunity--persons should have an equal
opportunity based on their abilities and qualifications, not on their
membership in a protected class, to employment and promotion. In other
words, a woman could apply for a job and not be turned down because it was
a "man's job."

Affirmative Action--Because certain groups have historically suffered from
discrimination in education and employment (for example, not being hired
because of race or sex) and were as being at a disadvantage as a result of
that past discrimination, society had to take positive steps or
"affirmative action" to give them opportinuties to catch up. For example,
previously white-only colleges had to actively recruit students from other
races.

In the case of employment, companies were required to look at the
demographic make-up of their staff. If the population in an area was 65%
black and 35% white (as it was where I grew up in Virginia) and the
company's workforce was 100% white, the presumption was that the disparity
("under-representation") of black employees was the result of
discrimination, not the result of (the somewhat far-fetched) chance that
the only persons qualified for jobs at that company were white. (By the
way, in 1950, this was not an unusual employment mix in certain areas of
the southern United States.)


The burden was on the company to disprove this presumption and to proved
that the job qualifications they were enforcing were truly job-related
(and, of course, they often were not: some were patently and overtly
discriminatory; others were based on myth and legend; many were a
combination of the two). The company would then have to take affirmative
action to increase the representation of blacks in its workforce.

Strictly, the legal requirement was that, if faced with two applicants, one
white male and one black male, whose qualifications were otherwise *equal,*
preference should be given to the black male. In the case of intentional
discrimination, the company might be obligated to seek out and train
qualified members of the under-represented group, to make up for education
and training deficiencies resulting from historical discrimination.

Few persons will publically oppose EEO. Many, however, oppose Affirmative
Action, labeling it as "reverse discrimination." In some cases, companies
and education institutions extended offers to less qualified candidates
because of their membership in protected classes. In many more cases, they
did not, but the majority (white males) believed that they were. And so on.

The two terms are sometimes abbreviated as EEO/AA. You will often see EEO
as a stand-alone acronym; you will seldom see AA as a stand-alone, because
AA also refers to Alcoholics Anonymous, the self-help group.

There were other aspects to the laws regarding access of private citizens
to public services, such as housing, loans, restaurants, hotels, retail
establishments, and the like. These were referred to as "public
accommodations." In some case, affirmative action principles were applied
to them (most often as regards access to housing and banking services), but
discrimination in these areas were more generally seen as EEO issues.

Hope this helps.

Frank Bell
Technical Trainer--EAC
Checkpoint Systems, Inc.
101 Wolf Drive
Thorofare, N. J. 08086

e-mail: fbell@nonamebbs.com
new address>>>>>>> http://hometown.aol.com/frankwbell
(but the old one still works)

THis is too big a subject to try to explain in a brief, correct, and
balanced way. Suggest you do a search for the term on the Web; it should
give you thousands of hits. Good luck.

WANG Chongwei wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
>
> I major in I/O research and now is reading a book concerning retail
> management. Can anyone explain what "affirmative action" is? I met it in
> the passage on the legal environment of retail management.
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Chongwei

Chongwei,
Affirmative Action has many definitions but the most commonly accepted is
that which describes it as a deliberate policy of increasing opportunities -
in the workplace or in education and training - for those who have
traditionally been disadvantaged in the workplace or job market. For
example, in some industries women have been disadvantaged in gaining access
to training and support for promotion to senior positions. Affirmative
Action sets up programs to specifically correct this imbalance. Similarly,
where there are people whose literacy and numeracy skills (usually developed
as a result of poor schooling) have been holding them back from gaining
greater fulfilment at work special courses are put in place to help them
gain these skills.

Hope this helps. You'll no doubt get different definitions and I think from
these you'll get a clear picture of not only what Affirmative Action is, but
what it means to different people.

Regards

Phil Rutherford


WANG Chongwei wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
>
> I major in I/O research and now is reading a book concerning retail
> management. Can anyone explain what "affirmative action" is? I met it in
> the passage on the legal environment of retail management.
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Chongwei

this is helpful -- thanks.

Frank Bell wrote:

> At 07:10 PM 11/10/98 +0800, WANG Chongwei wrote:
>
> >Hello Everyone,
> >
> >I major in I/O research and now is reading a book concerning retail
> >management. Can anyone explain what "affirmative action" is? I met it in
> >the passage on the legal environment of retail management.
>
> I must qualify this by saying that I am not a lawyer, but I have written
> and taught management training courses on EEO and Affirmative Action in
> consultation with EEO investigators and lawyers. Here is a brief intro to
> the concept of Affirmative Action. I am confident that other members of
> the list will correct any errors I may make.
>
> Affirmative Action is a USA legal term that grew out of the civil rights
> struggle during the second half of this century. The US Civil Rights Act
> of 1964, as supplemented by other laws, has two broad thrusts as regards
> employment without regard to membership in a "protected class" of persons
> (the "protected classes" being those groups named in the laws--race,
> religion, color [not the same as race], handicapped status, veteran status,
> sex, and, in some states and cities, sexual preference and appearance):
>
> EEO or Equal Employment Opportunity--persons should have an equal
> opportunity based on their abilities and qualifications, not on their
> membership in a protected class, to employment and promotion. In other
> words, a woman could apply for a job and not be turned down because it was
> a "man's job."
>
> Affirmative Action--Because certain groups have historically suffered from
> discrimination in education and employment (for example, not being hired
> because of race or sex) and were as being at a disadvantage as a result of
> that past discrimination, society had to take positive steps or
> "affirmative action" to give them opportinuties to catch up. For example,
> previously white-only colleges had to actively recruit students from other
> races.
>
> In the case of employment, companies were required to look at the
> demographic make-up of their staff. If the population in an area was 65%
> black and 35% white (as it was where I grew up in Virginia) and the
> company's workforce was 100% white, the presumption was that the disparity
> ("under-representation") of black employees was the result of
> discrimination, not the result of (the somewhat far-fetched) chance that
> the only persons qualified for jobs at that company were white. (By the
> way, in 1950, this was not an unusual employment mix in certain areas of
> the southern United States.)
>
> The burden was on the company to disprove this presumption and to proved
> that the job qualifications they were enforcing were truly job-related
> (and, of course, they often were not: some were patently and overtly
> discriminatory; others were based on myth and legend; many were a
> combination of the two). The company would then have to take affirmative
> action to increase the representation of blacks in its workforce.
>
> Strictly, the legal requirement was that, if faced with two applicants, one
> white male and one black male, whose qualifications were otherwise *equal,*
> preference should be given to the black male. In the case of intentional
> discrimination, the company might be obligated to seek out and train
> qualified members of the under-represented group, to make up for education
> and training deficiencies resulting from historical discrimination.
>
> Few persons will publically oppose EEO. Many, however, oppose Affirmative
> Action, labeling it as "reverse discrimination." In some cases, companies
> and education institutions extended offers to less qualified candidates
> because of their membership in protected classes. In many more cases, they
> did not, but the majority (white males) believed that they were. And so on.
>
> The two terms are sometimes abbreviated as EEO/AA. You will often see EEO
> as a stand-alone acronym; you will seldom see AA as a stand-alone, because
> AA also refers to Alcoholics Anonymous, the self-help group.
>
> There were other aspects to the laws regarding access of private citizens
> to public services, such as housing, loans, restaurants, hotels, retail
> establishments, and the like. These were referred to as "public
> accommodations." In some case, affirmative action principles were applied
> to them (most often as regards access to housing and banking services), but
> discrimination in these areas were more generally seen as EEO issues.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Frank Bell
> Technical Trainer--EAC
> Checkpoint Systems, Inc.
> 101 Wolf Drive
> Thorofare, N. J. 08086
>
> e-mail: fbell@nonamebbs.com
> new address>>>>>>> http://hometown.aol.com/frankwbell
> (but the old one still works)