Affirmative Action Programs (United States): Cultural Concerns

Abstract

Since the 1960s, the United States has implemented ‘affirmative action’ programs in higher education, employment, and public contracting. The ideal of ‘color-blind’ public policy that was central to the civil rights movement and written into law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was abandoned. Instead, racial double standards have been employed in an effort to bring about something approaching proportional representation of disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups in major institutions. These policies have not achieved their intended results, and have had unanticipated negative consequences. They are nonetheless likely to be continued far into the future.