Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action on Other Stakeholders, is an article that was written by Barbara Reskin in 1998. The central theme of the paper is about affitmitave action, which aimed at reducing inequality towards women and minorities within the work force The researcher discuses how it does not promote reverse discrimination and does not hinder business productivity. Reverse discrimination is a prejudice against majority group members. According to the author, 70 to 80 go percent of white men think that affirmative action discriminates against whites (Reskin 2008).

There is a big misconception that less qualified candidates are promoted and hired through affirmitvie action. The evidence the artice highlights was a study conducted of more than 3,00 entry level workers who were recently hired in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit and Los Angelas (Reskin 2008). A performance evaluation was conducted of the women and minorities hired through the affirmitave aciotn process. The results showed that the women and minorities performed to the same level in regards to performance. Affirmative action plays an important role in maintaining equality. What I found most interesting from reading the article was how large companies that have nore than 50 workers, are required to give written affirmative action plans. While working for a large company I felt like I was hired through affirmative action. Most employeeof the company was predominately white middle aged males. My brother and I were hired on the spot as behavior specialists. We were plugged into a school which all employees of my position weere young, chicano latino males. I believe we were hired to fill the void for this ethnicity, socio economic class and age. This form of affirmative action is not illegal and it a tool to help employers make a balance of race and gender.

However targeting certain race, gender, and age can lead to hiring unqualified employees who are not screened correctly. This is what I witnessed when my company sent us a long term sunstitute who was just like myselsf a yound ages, Mexican American. His work ethic was poor and did he do not belonog working with autistic children. This is an example of how targeting certain races, genders and age groups gthrough affirmitave action can backfire. Reskin, Barbara. (1998). The effects of affirmative action on other stakeholders. In T. Ore (Ed.), The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality (pp.74-84) (4th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.