AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICIES
HISTORY AND DEFINITION OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The acceptance or rejection of affirmative action as a means to achieving the purpose of having the minorities in political, education and professional sector is dependent on the indept understanding of the concept. Thus, this chapter is set to discuss the various definitions of affirmative action and the history of affirmative action, that is, how and why it came about.
1.1 WHAT IS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION?
Affirmative action has various definitions as offered by different philosophers, and here, I shall give a few.
‘“Affirmative action” is a term familiar to most Americans but one not always well understood. Over time, it has signified a variety of strategies designed to enhance employment, educational, or business opportunities for groups, such as racial or ethnic minorities and women, who have suffered discrimination’1.
This definition of affirmative action, as is the most general definition, views affirmative action as a measure put in place to reward those who were at the receiving end of the evil of discrimination: affirmative action is put in place on the platform of employment, that is, they are given special preference when they request for a job, on the political platform, that is, they are given a number of slot(s) or seat(s) to contest for political positions or to occupy a particular ministerial post (as is the case in Nigeria), thus, before others will be considered, these ones that are recipient of affirmative action will first be considered.
‘Affirmative action means positive steps taken to increase the representation of women and minorities in the areas of employment, education and culture from which they have been historically excluded’2.
‘Affirmative action is a policy of favoring qualified women and minority candidates over qualified men or nonminority candidates, with the immediate goals of outreach, remedying discrimination, or achieving diversity, and the ultimate goals of attaining a colorblind (racially just) and gender-free (sexually just) society’3.
1.2.2 THE ORIGIN OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICIES
Affirmative action arose, just as the definition by Philip Rubio17said, as a result to the various protests by the blacks against the injustices that were meted against them. From the beginning of American political history, the unequal status of African Americans and women has been explicitly written into the highest law of the land, and for almost two centuries, each group has fought to rewrite that law while seeking social, political, and economic equality18. The concept of affirmative action originally comes from the centuries-old English legal concept of equity, or the administration of justice according to what was fair in a particular situation, as opposed to rigidly following legal rules, which may have a harsh result19. Thus, in an effort to combat discrimination against African Americans in the 1960s, the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced an entirely new concept. The president recognized that merely prohibiting discrimination was not enough to compensate for the effects of centuries of segregation and legalized discrimination which had put African-Americans at a severe disadvantage. They had attended inferior schools, had been barred from good jobs, and had been shut out of the political process. President Johnson’s administration therefore proposed that “affirmative action” be taken to ensure that minorities received jobs, promotions, admission to universities, and other important opportunities20.
Today, affirmative action is a program for the less fortunate, minority tribes and women which are called affirmative action or by such other names as “positive discrimination” in Britain and in India, “standardization” in Sri Lanka, “reflecting the federal character of the country” in Nigeria, and “‘sons of the soil’ preferences” in Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as in some states in India. Group preferences and quotas have also existed in Israel, China, Australia, Brazil, Fiji, Canada,
PAGES 78