Shortcomings In Response To Strong Affirmative Action

Affirmative action is a policy that takes characteristics such as an individual’s race, sex, etc., into account by a business (in terms of the hiring process) or government (in college admission affairs). Affirmative action presents itself in two forms; weak and strong. Weak affirmative action occurs when preference is awarded to a minority person with equal qualifications as their white, male counterpart; in a decision between a minority and white male of equal competence, the minority individual will be given preference in terms of being hired, or admitted. Strong affirmative action involves giving preference to minorities/women who are less qualified than white, male applicants. I will be discussing the morality of the implementation of
Shortcomings in qualifications for a given job or university may also put the hired/admitted minority individual at a disadvantage if their credentials are not equivalent to those of a standard student or worker at a given school or workplace. This attitude in response to strong affirmative action, therefore, would not promote happiness for the greatest amount of people; admitted students/workers who are underqualified are set up for failure, which leads to unhappiness. In addition to this, a given workplace or university is also unhappy due to poor performance of minority individuals who are not properly qualified. Finally, peers of minority students/employees may feel resentment towards these groups for reasons stated above, which contributes to an overall level of unhappiness. In respect to strong affirmative impact from this different perspective, it may also be deemed immoral from a utilitarian
The ultimate goal of social contract theories is show that social rules can be rationally justified, which is what Rawls’ theory can be interpreted to do in terms of our society’s social rule of strong affirmative action, implemented by great numbers of businesses and collegiate universities. Rawls’ theory of justice contains two principles; the first (The Principle of Basic Liberties) holds that each person is entitled to equal basic liberties that cannot trump another person’s basic liberties. In terms of this principle of Rawls’ theory, it can be asserted that all applicants in the hiring/admissions process are entitled to equal opportunity, regardless of gender, race, religion, etc. The second principle (The Difference Principle) holds that social and economic inequalities should exist only under the condition that they are to the greatest advantage to the least advantaged people in society. Rawls ultimately recommends and advocates for equality of opportunity and the promotion of the interests of those most disadvantaged in our society; according to this viewpoint, strong affirmative action is moral on the grounds that it works to provide minority individuals with greater levels of opportunity and benefits that they’ve been denied over many years of