Toward an Integrative Approach to Affirmative Action

Abstract

Having taken advantage of quotas and set-asides in the job market and in university admissions, considerable numbers of African Americans havemanaged to bridge the socioeconomic gap with the more prosperous groups, but the backlash against preferential treatment during the past few yearshas cast doubt over its very constitutionality. That racial preferences need to be continued for the greatest number of African Americans to truly takeadvantage of it is a basic postulate in this essay. But the system of racial preferences, as it currently stands, will shortly lose the support it has hadfor decades, whereby a well-structured reform plan is urgently needed. This essay proposes a reform plan for affirmative action so that it eventuallyfulfills the goals for which it was initially designed.Keywords: Affirmative action, African Americans, preferential treatment, welfare reform, racism