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Affirmative Action

Affirmative action

Affirmative action (U.S. English), or positive discrimination (British English), is a policy or a program promoting the representation in various systems of people of a minority group who have traditionally been discriminated against, with the aim of creating a more egalitarian society. This typically focuses on education, employment, health care, or social welfare. In employment, affirmative action may also be known as employment equity or preferential hiring. In this context affirmative action requires that institutions increase hiring and promotion of candidates of mandated groups. There is much debate concerning claims that the practice is itself racialist, that it fails to achieve its desired goal, and that it has unintended and undesirable effects.

Purpose

Affirmative action began as corrective for past governmental and social injustices against demographic groups that have been subjected to prejudice. Such groups are characterized most commonly by race, sex or gender, or ethnicity. Affirmative action seeks to increase the representation of these demographic groups in schools, in work place, and in society in general.. A certain minority group or gender may be less proportionately represented in an area, often employment or education, due predominantly, in the view of proponents, to past or ongoing discrimination against members of the group. The theory is that a simple adoption of meritocratic principles along the lines of race-blindness or gender-blindness would not suffice to change the situation for several reasons:
- Discrimination practices of the past preclude the acquisition of 'merit' by limiting access to educational opportunities and job experiences.
- Ostensible measures of 'merit' might well be biased toward the same groups who were already empowered.
- Regardless of overt principles, people already in positions of power will be likely to hire people they already knew, and/or people from similar backgrounds. In such a circumstance, proponents believe government action giving members of the minority group preferential treatment is necessary in order to achieve a proportionate distribution. From its outset, affirmative action was seen as a transitional strategy, with the intent that over some period of time—variously estimated from a generation to a century—the effects of past discrimination would be sufficiently countered that such a strategy would no longer be necessary: the power elite would reflect the demographics of society at large. Though affirmative action in the U.S. is primarily associated with racial issues, the American civil rights movement originally gave as its purpose the correction of a history of oppression against all working-class and low-income people, and women have figured as prominently as ethnic minorities among its beneficiaries.

History

The terms "affirmative action" and "positive discrimination" originate in law, where it is common for lawyers to speak of "affirmative" or "positive" remedies that command the wrongdoer to do something. In contrast, "negative" remedies command the wrongdoer to not do something or to stop doing something. The initial successes of the civil rights movement brought about negative remedies that attempted to prevent majority ethnic or racial groups from discriminating against minorities. However, by the mid-1960s, when such prohibitions failed to ameliorate existing structural inequities, many began to argue that governments should actively intervene, or take affirmative action, to compensate for the lingering effects of past harms. Contrary to popular belief, and despite his call for a colorblind nation, Martin Luther King Jr. supported affirmative action. Some resolve this contradiction by arguing that he advocated socioeconomic based affirmative action. Others contend that despite his call, he favored race-based affirmative action. King conceded that the vast majority of the poor were black, implying that he could frame his proposals in terms of class and not race, while still achieving the end of compensatory treatment, albeit via a more agreeable position. While he advocates at different times socioeconomic- and race-based affirmative action, his comments seem to favor the latter. Among his comments:

""Whenever this issue [compensatory treatment] is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree, but should ask for nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man enters the starting line of a race three hundred years after another man, the first would have to perform some incredible feat in order to catch up."

""A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for him, to equip him to compete on a just and equal basis. "

""... for two centuries the Negro was enslaved and robbed of any wages — potential accrued wealth which would have been the legacy of his descendants. All of America's wealth today could not adequately compensate its Negroes for his centuries of exploitation and humiliation. It is an economic fact that a program such as I propose would certainly cost far less than any computation of two centuries of unpaid wages plus accumulated interest. In any case, I do not intend that this program of economic aid should apply only to the Negro: it should benefit the disadvantaged of all races."

As one site puts it: "King actually suggested it might be necessary to have something akin to "discrimination in reverse" as a form of national "atonement" for the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow segregation." [http://www.lipmagazine.org/articles/featwise_mlk.shtml][http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_tol.jsp?id=687][http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1292][http://www.allanfavish.com/mlking.htm] In 1962, James Farmer, founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, held a meeting with then vice president Lyndon B. Johnson. Farmer proposed that a program that he called Compensatory Preferential Treatment should be put in place in order to advance the equality of the black race. In 1965, Johnson (then president) renamed Compensatory Preferential Treatment "affirmative action" in a famous speech at Howard University, which became the national justification for moving the country beyond nondiscrimination to a more vigorous effort to improve the status of black Americans:

"You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line in a race and then say, 'you are free to compete with all the others', and still justly believe that you have been completely fair."

It was a counter-argument to the previously prevailing notion of meritocracy. The skills that merit-based admission rewards are cultivated in children by parents with money. Affirmative action was to be a method by which minorities could eventually develop those skills in their own children. During the Nixon administration, affirmative action was adopted as a federal mandate for companies with federal contracts and for labor unions whose workers were engaged in those projects. This "revised Philadelphia plan" was spearheaded by Labor Department official Arthur Fletcher. In the 1960s and 1970s, affirmative action became overwhelmingly popular on campuses across America as mass student protests spurred schools to actively recruit minority applicants. National excitement died down in the late 1970s, and quickly turned to national controversy. Some theorize, affirmative action has brought about vast improvement in the class stratification of minorities. From 1960 to 1995, according to data in The Shape of the River by William G. Bowen and Derek Bok, the percentage of blacks aged 25–29 who had graduated from college rose from 5.4 to 15.4%, the percentage of blacks in law school grew from below 1 to 7.5%, and the percentage of blacks in medical school increased from 2.2 to 8.1%. Others contend that affirmative action, per se, cannot be considered the primary agent of change for the growth of black employment in the majority of employment categories in the U.S., as official affirmative action employment programs applied only to government and government contractor hiring. Most Americans worked for small- and medium-sized businesses that did not employ affirmative action programs. Many of these companies, however, espoused the concept of Equal Opportunity Employment: a pledge to not discriminate negatively in hiring and promotion decisions on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, and in some venues, sexual orientation. Moreover, the growth of the black middle class was on an upward trajectory in the 1950s and 1960s prior to the implementation of the vast majority of affirmative action programs. While the growth in many areas related to black people have been tremendous over the past three decades (the size of the black middle class, the rate of black homeownership, the number of black men and women in managerial and executive positions, black family wealth), there are those who feel that the lingering problems from a history of black oppression are far from gone for many black people, especially those in the underclass..

Other approaches

In some countries which have laws on racial equality, affirmative action is rendered illegal by a requirement to treat all races equally. This approach of equal treatment is sometimes described as being "race-blind". It tends to act against both discrimination and reverse discrimination. In such countries, the focus tends to be on ensuring equal opportunity and, for example, targeted advertising campaigns to encourage ethnic minority candidates to join the police force. This is sometimes described as "positive action", as opposed to "positive discrimination".

Consultations

Another, more indirect form of affirmative action works through "consultations", whereby institutions such as schools or health-care facilities are viewed as centred on the majority culture, and therefore consultation with other ethnic groups are specified as a remedy. This can cause accusations of double-standards, as in practice representatives of all ethnic groups except the majority group receive consultation on institutional workings. Proponents discount this as being irrelevant, as they claim consultation with the majority group is pointless, as the institution's management is centered on their culture anyway.

United States

In the U.S., affirmative action only applies at transition points—times when individuals are changing their employment or enrollment. Thus, any potential advantage or disadvantage is predominantly conferred upon working age adults who hope to improve their lot through a change in employment or the pursuit of educational opportunity. This arrangement has the greatest impact on young people, while maintaining the status and position of established members of society. This overall framework was established by Presidential Decree in March 1961 by President Kennedy, but has evolved significantly. The Constitution of the United States, as well as numerous laws, outlaws discrimination against a group based on their race or ethnicity. Proponents believe affirmative action programs should not be ended until research has conclusively shown negative outcomes for non-preferred people or groups.

Basis in law

In the U.S. Constitution, the "equal protection" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment mandates that no governmental entity burden a person or deny them benefits because they are members of a particular racial group (see Constitutional Law, Nowak and Rotunda). The Johnson administration embraced affirmative action in 1965, by issuing U.S Executive order 11246, later amended by Executive order 11375. The order, as amended, aims "to correct the effects of past and present discrimination". It prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, skin color, religion, gender, or national origin. The Order requires that contractors take affirmative action to ensure that "protected class, underutilized applicants" are employed when available, and that employees are treated without negative discriminatory regard to their protected-class status. The order specifically requires certain organizations accepting federal funds to take affirmative action to increase employment of members of preferred racial or ethnic groups and women. Any organization with fifty or more employees and an aggregate revenue exceeding $50,000 from federal contracts during a twelve month period must have a written affirmative action plan. This plan must include goals and timetables for achieving full utilization of women and members of racial minorities, in quotas based on an analysis of the current workforce compared to the availability in the general labor pool of women and members of racial minorities.. The order is enforced by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs of the Employment Standards Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor and by the Office of Civil Rights of the Justice Department. Section 717 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 require all United States Federal Agencies to implement affirmative employment opportunity programs for all federal employees. EEOC [http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/eeomd715.html Equal Employment Opportunity Management Directive 715 (MD 715)] provides guidance as to how such programs are to be implemented. Although it is well known which ethnic groups and races are preferred or "protected" by the Government, almost no list or enumeration is made in writing, presumably because of a fear that such a list would be held unconstitutional as a form of invidious discrimination against groups not on the list. In the beginning, racial classifications that identified race were inherently suspect and subject to strict scrutiny. These classifications would only be upheld if necessary to promote a compelling governmental interest. Later the U.S. Supreme Court decided that racial classifications that benefited underrepresented minorities were to only be upheld if necessary and promoted a compelling governmental purpose. (See Richmond v. JA Croson Co.) There is no clear guidance about when government action is not "compelling", and such rulings are rare. Individual U.S. states [http://www.moga.state.mo.us/statutes/chapters/chap213.htm e.g., Missouri] also have orders that prohibit discrimination and outline affirmative action requirements with regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, and disability status.

Implementation in universities

When members of targeted groups are actively sought or preferred, the reason given is usually that this is necessary to compensate for advantages that groups such as males or those of European descent have derived from racism (including institutional racism and unconscious racism), sexism (similarly), and results of historical circumstances. In the U.S., the most prominent form of affirmative action centers on access to education, particularly admission to universities and other forms of tertiary instruction. Race, ethnicity, native language, social class, geographical origin, parental attendance of the university in question (legacy admissions), and/or gender are often taken into account when assessing the meaning of an applicant's grades and test scores. For example, the college admission chances of a female university student will tend to be equal to that of a male student with SAT scores fifty points higher than hers. Individuals can also be awarded scholarships and have fees paid on the basis of criteria listed above. In the U.S., affirmative action programs at universities benefit mostly African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans. Asian Americans, although a racial minority, do not benefit at most colleges because the rate of college education among Asian Americans is higher than the other racial groups (including whites). See model minority for more information. An affirmative action study by Princeton researchers in 2005 attempted to break down and compare the effects of the practice among racial and special groups. The data from the study represent admissions disadvantage and advantage in terms of SAT points (on 1600-point scale):
- Blacks: +230
- Hispanics: +185
- Asians: −50
- Recruited athletes: +200
- Legacies (children of alumni): +160 [http://opr.princeton.edu/faculty/tje/espenshadessqptii.pdf Study (PDF)] The estimates for blacks, and to a lesser extent Hispanics, probably understate the disparity. Standardized tests tend to overpredict for individual, high-scoring members of populations with weaker test scores [http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/stalkers/em_bayes.html][http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/dct.htm]. (One's SAT score predicts a certain level of performance. If one performs above this level, the test underpredicted; if the reverse, it overpredicted.) Thus, according to these analyses, accounting for group differences, a white with a score of 1,200 would actually be more, not equally, able on average than a black or Hispanic with the same score. Critics say that this failure to adjust scores to improve the test's predictive validity distorts the true scores of minorities, and indirectly everyone, as admissions is a zero sum game. Adjusting for this tendency would likely result in more controversy, however, as it is easily misconstrued. Additionally, class rank, a statistic widely used in admissions, likely confers advantage on underperforming minorities. In California, Florida, and Texas public universities, affirmative action has been replaced with class rank and other programs. Class rank tends to discriminate against those at relatively competitive high schools, simply because high schools are not uniform in student ability. Thus a student with grades in the top ten percent at a mediocre school is unlikely to be equivalent or superior to a student at a elite school. Class rank, as a result, is more a measure of one's peers than of oneself. As such, some high schools refuse to rank their students. [http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/docs/04-22-05Fischer.htm]

Important Supreme Court cases

- Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 1978 :The Supreme Court held that the UC Davis medical school admissions program violated the equal protection clause with the institution of quotas for underrepresented minorities. However, the court ruled that race could be one of the factors in university admissions.
- Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003 :The Supreme Court ruled that race could be used as a criterion in school admissions and that it would not be in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The Court found that the University of Michigan Law School's narrowly-tailored policy was constitutional and appropriate "to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body."
- Gratz v. Bollinger, 2003 :The Supreme Court ruled that the University of Michigan's point-based undergraduate admissions policy that took race into account numerically was too mechanical and unconstitutional. An attorney who filed an amicus brief on behalf of Pennsylvania legislators and former legislators in Grutter v. Bollinger, Rep. Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia, said that "The cumulative effect of the Bakke, Grutter, and Bollinger cases is that no one has a legal right to have any demographic characteristic they possess be considered a favorable point on their behalf, but an employer has a right to take into account the goals of the organization and the interests of American society in making decisions. This is a moderate, inclusive position that ably balances the various legal interests involved." Other important cases:
- Adarand Constructors v. Peña, [http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/briefs/00-730/00-730.mer.ami.mbeldef.pdf|515 U.S. 200 (1995)] (establishing strict scrutiny standard of review for race and ethnic-based Federal Affirmative Action programs).
- City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=488&invol=469|488 U.S. 469 (1989)] (strict scrutiny standard to state and local programs).
- Griggs v. Duke Power [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=401&invol=424 401 U.S. 424 (1971)]
- Regents of the University of California v. Bakke [http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/324/ 438 U.S. 265 (1978)]
- Smith v. University of Washington 233 F.3d 1188 (4th Cir. 2000) [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=9th&no=99-35209]
- Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Antonio [http://www.law.harvard.edu/publications/evidenceiii/cases/wards.htm 490 U.S. 642 (1989)] revised the standards established by the 1971 Griggs decision.

In individual U.S. states

Washington

Initiative 200 in Washington was overwhelmingly passed by the electorate took effect on December 3, 1998 and applies to all local governments, including counties, cities, and towns. [http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/initiatives/text/i200.pdf I-200] prohibits "preferential treatment" based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, education, and contracting. The State Legislature has generally been in favor of Affirmative Action and appears to wish to reinstate aspects of it despite that overwhelming vote; since more than two years have passed since the initiative they may legally do so.

Other countries

- Greece Greece has quotas setting a lower limit for women participating in election lists of political parties for most of the election processes.
- European Union 2000/43/EU (29 June 2000) concerns the application of the principle of equality without regard to race or ethnic origin (ABl. EU Number L 180 p 22), anti-racism directive, to be implemented in national law of the member states.
- China The People's Republic allows non-Han ethnic groups (around 9% of the population) to be exempt from the One-child policy, and there is a quota for minority representatives in the National Assembly in Beijing, as well as other realms of government.
- India In order to redress the historical inequity of the caste system, certain positions in university and government are reserved for previously oppressed castes. A large percentage of College admissions and government job quotas are reserved for these castes. There have been recent attempts to introduce it into the private job sector and for Muslim minorities.
- Malaysia The bumiputra laws are a form of affirmative action meant to provide more opportunity for the majority ethnic Malay population versus the historical financial dominance of the Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indian populations.
- New Zealand Individuals of Maori or other Polynesian descent are often afforded preferential access to university courses, and scholarships.
- Southeast Asia In countries such as Indonesia, affirmative action programs give natives preference over Han Chinese who have immigrated into the country.
- United Kingdom Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement the law requires that the Police Service of Northern Ireland recruit equal numbers of Catholics and Protestants (including Anglicans).
- Slovakia The Constitutional Court declared in October 2005 that affirmative action i.e. 'providing advantages for people of an ethnic or racial minority group' as being against its Constitution. [http://euobserver.com/9/20123 (euobserver.com)]
- South Africa The Employment Equity Act aims to promote and achieve equity in the workplace, by encouraging equal opportunity amongst all workers. It includes efforts to identify reasons for inequalities and change the employment rates of previously underrepresented groups for a more equitable job market.
- Germany Article 3 of the German constitution provides for equal rights of all people regardless of sex or race. In recent years there has been a long public debate about whether to issue programs that would grant women a privileged access to jobs in order to fight discrimination. There were programs stating that if men and women had equal qualifications, women had to be preferred for a job. The anti-discrimination law (Antidiskriminierungsgesetz; ADG), which is yet to pass, aims at improving the protection of minorities.
- Japan The [http://www2.mhlw.go.jp/topics/seido/josei/hourei/20000401-31e.htm Law on Securing, Etc. of Equal Opportunity and Treatment between Men and Women in Employment] issued first in 1972, provided that men and women should have equal chances in employment. Most workers are still male.

Results

UCLA professor Richard H. Sander published an article in the November 2004 issue of the Stanford Law Review that questioned the effectiveness of affirmative action in law schools. The article presents a study that, among other things, shows that half of all black law students rank near the bottom of their class after the first year of law school, and that black law students are more likely to drop out of law school and to fail the bar exam. The article offers a tentative estimate that the production of new black lawyers in the United States would grow by eight percent if affirmative action programs at all law schools were ended, as black students would instead attend less prestigious schools where they would be more closely matched with their classmates, and thus perform better. The article has sparked heated initial reaction and controversy, and critics are reviewing the study's methodology. Sander, whose personal politics are reported to be somewhat liberal, helped to develop a socioeconomically-based affirmative action plan for the UCLA School of Law after the passage of Proposition 209 in 1996 which prohibited the use of racial preferences by public universities California schools. This change occurred after studies that showed that the graduation rate of blacks at UCLA was 41%, compared to 73% for whites. Another consequence of affirmative action as it is practised in U.S. universities is that it widens the gap in academic qualifications between different ethnic groups attending the same university by granting admission to preferred students based on different, lower requirements. The smallest gap is usually found at the most prestigious universities, who actively recruit the most qualified students from preferred minority groups The smallest gap is found at Harvard, where the gap between African American and Asian American students is about 90 SAT points. UC Berkeley has one of the highest gaps at about 300 SAT points. This of course, assumes that SAT scores correlate significantly to academic merit, qualification, or potential, a highly controversial notion [http://www.collegeboard.com/research/pdf/rn15new_17517.pdf]. In order to avoid a system of racial quotas, the State of Texas passed a law guaranteeing entry to any state university of a student's choice if they finished in the top 10% of their graduating class. Despite fears that this would lower standards, minority students from schools with lesser performances are claimed to do as well as students from better schools, and the average SAT and GPA scores of applicants to Texas universities has reportedly not fallen. Nevertheless, the top 10% law is highly controversial on the grounds that it overemphasizes GPA, and a bill has recently passed in the Texas House (but not the Senate) strongly limiting it [http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/legislature/11627400.htm].

Criticism

Demeaning racialism

Opponents of affirmative action regard it as government sanctioned racial discrimination, and also believe that it’s demeaning to members of minority groups, that affirmative action wrongly sends a condescending message to minorities that they are not capable enough to be considered on their own merits.

Quotas

Critics often object to the use of racial quotas and gender quotas in affirmative action. Quotas are illegal in the United States, except when a judge issues an order for a specific institution to make up for extreme past discrimination. There is dispute over whether this de jure illegality prevents de facto quotas. Much time has been spent attempting to show that these "goals" are not quotas.

Cultural differences

Some view the disproportionate percentages of different races in institution of higher education or certain professions as a reflection of minority cultures having varying emphasis on education. Some proponents of this view believe African-Americans, Hispanic Americans and other often underrepresented minority communities do not emphasize education and high academic achievement as much as whites or Asians or "Model Minorites". Proponents of this view will often further criticize hip hop culture, "victim mentality", militant afrocentricity, anti-establishment mentality, high family instability, and excessive economic materialism or consumerism as being among the cultural factors that have prevented blacks from achieving the same economic opportunity as whites. Thus, proponents believe that the minority community, not the government, should be responsible for eliminating any economic disparity between the races. Some proponents of this view often believe that it is primarily cultural differences, not just socioeconomic problems, that is the root of economic disparity between races. Supporting this view is not mutually exclusive to supporting affirmative action. Nonetheless, most supporters of this view believe that affirmative action policies or government intervention cannot solve the economic and educational disparity between the races. Social and fiscal conservatives most likely advocate this point of view. TV talk show host Bill O'Reilly, who is white and labels himself a "traditionalist", is one of the biggest commentators known for criticizing hip hop music for promoting the "gangster" lifestyle, misogynist behavior, and poor grammatical skills in inner city or black communities. He has often criticized several rappers by name, including Ludacris and Cam'ron, for using profane and explicit lyrics in their music, which he believes heavily contributes to juvenile delinquency in black communities. In 2004, African-American comedian Bill Cosby publicly criticized the black community for having low standards in regards to tolerating high illiteracy, high rate of single fatherless parent households, high crime rate, and emphasizing excessive consumerism. He has repeatedly called upon inner-city African-Americans to develop a culture that celebrates academic achievement and not juvenile delinquency or economic materialism (such as placing more value on clothing than getting a proper education). However, there is nothing to suggest that he in fact opposes affirmative action and this view is not mutually exclusive to supporting affirmative action. Nonetheless, conservatives and affirmative action opponents have used Cosby's message in order to introduce or further expand their message, especially towards those in the black community.

Biological Differences

Some critics of affirmative action believe that the demographic differences might have a biological influence. Examples include hormonal and neural differences between men and women, and possible biological differences between groups, such as Asian-Americans and African-Americans). (See Race and intelligence) Certain supporters of this view believe some races are on average smarter than other races due to genetic and biological differences. Some of these proponents point to controversial and disputed studies that claim that whites and Asians on average have higher IQ than blacks (mostly disputed not on the grounds that the studies are inaccurate, but rather that IQ itself may be a poor measure of intellectual ability). Many supporters believe the physical characteristics inherent in certain races contribute to varying levels of intelligence and mental capacity between races.

Disadvantaging working-class non-minorities

Another criticism of affirmative action in employment and education claims that these programs encourage socioeconomic discrimination in favor of middle-class members of minority groups over better qualified but working-class members from the majority group, since such programs do not consider socioeconomic class. In essence, middle-class minorities with greater opportunities and resources at their disposal are favored over members of the working poor who happen not to be minorities (usually, poor whites). These critics believe this is contrary to claims of "social justice" made by supporters.

Criticism by Thomas Sowell

The following are problems with affirmative action based on a review^{[http://www.townhall.com/bookclub/sowell4.html]} of Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study (ISBN 0-30010-199-6, 2004) by African-American economist Dr. Thomas Sowell:
- They encourage non-preferred groups to designate themselves as members of preferred groups [i.e. primary beneficiary of affirmative action] to take advantage of group preference policies;
- They tend to benefit primarily the most fortunate among the preferred group (e.g. black millionaires), oftentimes to the detriment of the least fortunate among the non-preferred groups (e.g. poor whites);
- They reduce the incentives of both the preferred and non-preferred to perform at their best — the former because doing so is unnecessary and the latter because it can prove futile — thereby resulting in net losses for society as a whole; and
- They engender animosity toward preferred groups as well as on the part of preferred groups themselves, whose main problem in some cases has been their own inadequacy combined with their resentment of non-preferred groups who — without preferences — consistently outperform them. Sowell also argued:[http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20030108.shtml] :What about the notion that affirmative action has helped blacks rise out of poverty? The black poverty rate was cut in half before affirmative action — and has barely changed since then. :What about the notion that blacks would not be able to get into colleges and universities without affirmative action? After group preferences and quotas were banned in California's state universities, the number of black students in the University of California system has risen. :"Minority students are systematically mismatched with institutions" due to racial preferences, where they underperform relative to the student body. Had they gone to an institution without the help of affirmative action, to a less selective school, they would have received better grades and graduated at higher rates. :"When the top-level schools recruit black students who would normally be qualified to succeed at the level next to the top, then the second tier of institutions faces the prospect of either being conspicuously lacking in minority students or (2) dipping down to the next level below to bring in enough minority students for a statistically respectable "representation." Usually they end up mismatching students. Once begun at the top, this process continues on down the line." [http://www.leaderu.com/alumni/sowell-choosing/chpter07.html#black]

Counter-arguments

Proponents of Affirmative Action respond that such discrepancies are a result of residential segregation; in response, critics of affirmative action argue that qualified members of the majority group should not be deprived of access to opportunities just because the larger society is unable to fix problems affecting its minority groups. Another argument is that many of the state and city universities had much lower tuition during the time they were primarily for whites, while tuition at such institutions have grown faster than the rate of inflation now that more minorities are attending. Tuition at the City College of New York was free up until the 1960s when the students were primarily Italian and Jewish, but now rival those of state universities now that most of the students are Black or Hispanic. In fact, however, until the 1960s the City College only accepted students with a 90 average, whereas now it accepts people with a 60 average. Furthermore, this college's alumni produced a record (for public colleges) eight Nobel laureates, all Ashkenazi Jews.[http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/iq.htm] A qualified minority with 90 average and a good SAT can qualify for honors college. One example is Colin Powell. For example, had Thurgood Marshall been admitted to Maryland, as a resident of Baltimore he would not have had to pay tuition. Howard, a private institution, had substantial tuition fees, but was at the time (the 1930s) the only ABA-accredited law program at a historically Black university. Other supporters of affirmative action argue that it benefits society as a whole. Given that affirmative action is effective, they argue, creating a diverse culture increases the quality of the society. This is widely argued in the realm of education. An example of support for this is a study done by Patricia Gurin, who is part of the American Psychological Association. Gurin found that students who are from a more diverse educational setting had better results in tests designed to measure complex thinking, were more motivated to understand other people’s points of view, were more understanding of differences in cultural environments, and were more confident in their intellectual ability. Counter-arguments regarding Cultural Differences: However, many supporters of affirmative action and critics of this view charge that those proponents are being ethnocentric and are disingenuously trying to deflect or downplay the role of past and current institutional discrimination of minorities. These critics believe that these proponents are trying to shift the blame onto the victim who was discriminated in the first place in order to justify rolling back government civil rights policies. Most of these critics believe eradicating affirmative action will further deepen economic disparity between whites and underrepresented minorities. Furthermore, many critics believe that those proponents are being naive, hypocritical, or vague in their quest to 'change the cultural values' of the black community.

Libertarian view

Free market libertarians believe any form of unjustified discrimination is likely to lead to inefficiencies, and that a rational person would therefore be unlikely to seek to discriminate one way or another and should therefore be free to decide who to select. Therefore, libertarians generally do not advocate anti-discrimination laws, as they reportedly distort the situation. They believe that inefficient, overregulated, noncompetitive industries enable unjustified discrimination, as said industries need not compete and hire on credentials relevant to the job. This was often the case with union membership, as unions were and are predicated upon rationing relatively high paying jobs to a large pool. In terms of policy, libertarians favor repealing all affirmative action legislation and regulation, so that the government has no official stance on the practice, leaving the decision to uphold and maintain such a policy up to the individual institutions. Some, however, may still take issue as taxpayers' money will support institutions that support or oppose affirmative action in the case of colleges and universities, meaning colleges, and not the government, should fund any costs of discrimination at their own expense. Libertarians generally disdain using taxpayers' money for programs that any citizen may oppose, like stem cell research. Instead, the optimal solution, according to them, lies in abolishing all federal aid to colleges and universities.

References

# Shaheen Lakhan - [http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/3/6 Diversification of U.S. Medical Schools via Affirmative Action Implementation]. BMC Medical Education. 3:6. 2003. # U.S. Department of Labor - [http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/ofccp/fs11246.htm U.S. Executive Order 11246] EEO and Affirmative Action Guidelines for Federal Contractors Regarding Race, Color, Gender, Religion, and National Origin # U.S. Department of Labor - [http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/statutes/ofccp/eo11246.htm Executive Order 11246], As Amended #[http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/ Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms] # Richard H. Sander, A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools, 57 Stanford Law Review 367 (2004), available at [http://www1.law.ucla.edu/~sander/Systemic/SA.htm Richard Sander's Homepage]. # [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/affirmative-action/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry] # Cato Institute [http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa540.pdf Policy Analysis 540] Category:Discrimination Category:Social justice Category:Social inequality Category:Issue in the Culture Wars ja:積極的差別是正措置

American English

American English (AmE) is the dialect of the English language used mostly in the United States of America. Crystal (1997) estimates that approximately two thirds of native speakers of English live in the United States. American English is also sometimes called United States English or U.S. English.

History

English was inherited from British colonization. The first wave of English-speaking immigrants was settled in North America in the 17th century. In that century, there were also speakers in North America of the Dutch, French, German, myriad Native American, Spanish, Swedish, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Finnish languages.

Phonology

In many ways, compared to British English, American English is conservative in its phonology. The conservatism of American English is largely the result of the fact that it represents a mixture of various dialects from the British Isles. Dialect in North America is most distinctive on the East Coast of the continent; this is largely because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes. The interior of the country was settled by people who were no longer closely connected to England, as they had no access to the ocean during a time when journeys to Britain were always by sea. As such the inland speech is much more homogeneous than the East Coast speech, and did not imitate the changes in speech from England. East Coast-influenced non-rhotic pronunciations may be found among blacks throughout the country.]]Most North American speech is rhotic, as English was in most places in the 17th century. Rhoticity was further supported by Hiberno-English, Scottish English, and West Country English. In most varieties of North American English, the sound corresponding to the letter "R" is a retroflex semivowel rather than a trill or a tap. The loss of syllable-final r in North America is confined mostly to the accents of eastern New England, New York City and surrounding areas, South Philadelphia, and the coastal portions of the South. Dropping of syllable-final r sometimes happens in natively rhotic dialects if r is located in unaccented syllables or words and the next syllable or word begins in a consonant. In England, lost 'r' was often changed into (schwa), giving rise to a new class of falling diphthongs. Furthermore, the 'er' sound of (stressed) fur or (unstressed) butter, which is represented in IPA as stressed or unstressed is realized in American English as a monophthongal r-colored vowel. This does not happen in the non-rhotic varieties of North American speech. Some other British English changes in which most North American dialects do not participate:
- The shift of to (the so-called "broad A") before alone or preceded by . This is the difference between the British Received Pronunciation and American pronunciation of bath and dance. In the United States, only linguistically conservative eastern-New-England speakers took up this innovation.
- The shift of intervocalic to glottal stop , as in for bottle. This change is not universal for British English (and in fact is not considered to be part of Received Pronunciation), but it does not occur in most North American dialects. Newfoundland English and the dialect of New Britain, Connecticut are notable exceptions. On the other hand, North American English has undergone some sound changes not found in Britain, at least not in standard varieties. Many of these are instances of phonemic differentiation and include
- The merger of and , making father and bother rhyme. This change is nearly universal in North American English, occurring almost everywhere except for parts of eastern New England, like the Boston accent.
- The replacement of the lot vowel with the strut vowel in what, was, of, from, everybody, nobody, somebody, anybody, because, and in some dialects want.
- The merger of and . This is the so-called cot-caught merger, where cot and caught are homophones. This change has occurred in eastern New England, in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, and from the Great Plains westward.
- Vowel merger before intervocalic . Which (if any) vowels are affected varies between dialects.
- The merger of and after palatals in some words, so that cure, pure, mature and sure rhyme with fir in some speech registers for some speakers.
- Dropping of after alveolar consonants so that new, duke, Tuesday, suit, resume, lute are pronounced , , , , , .
- Æ-tensing in environments that vary widely from accent to accent. In some accents, particularly those from Philadelphia to New York City, and can even contrast sometimes, as in Yes, I can vs. tin can .
- Laxing of , and to , and before , causing pronunciations like , and for pair, peer and pure.
- The flapping of intervocalic and to alveolar tap before reduced vowels. The words ladder and latter are mostly or entirely homophonous, possibly distinguished only by the length of preceding vowel. For some speakers, the merger is incomplete and 't' before a reduced vowel is sometimes not tapped following or when it represents underlying 't'; thus greater and grader, and unbitten and unbidden are distinguished. Even among those words where and are flapped, words that would otherwise be homophonous are, for some speakers, distinguished if the flapping is immediately preceded by the diphthongs or ; these speakers tend to pronounce writer with and rider with . This is called Canadian raising; it is general in Canadian English, and occurs in some northerly versions of American English as well (often just applying to the diphthong , but not to ).
- Both intervocalic and may be realized as or , making winter and winner homophones. This does not occur when the second syllable is stressed, as in entail.
- The pin-pen merger, by which is raised to before nasal consonants, making pairs like pen/pin homophonous. This merger originated in Southern American English but is now widespread in the Midwest and West as well. Some mergers found in most varieties of both American and British English include:
- The horse-hoarse merger of the vowels and before 'r', making pairs like horse/hoarse, corps/core, for/four, morning/mourning etc. homophones.
- The wine-whine merger making pairs like wine/whine, wet/whet, Wales/whales, wear/where etc. homophones. Many older varieties of southern and western American English still keep these distinct, but the merger appears to be spreading.

Differences in British English and American English

Main article: American and British English differences American English has both spelling and grammatical differences from British English (or Commonwealth English), some of which were made as part of an attempt to rationalize the English spelling used by British English at the time. Unlike many 20th century language reforms (for example, Turkey's alphabet shift, Norway's spelling reform) the American spelling changes were not driven by government, but by textbook writers and dictionary makers. The first American dictionary was written by Noah Webster in 1828. At the time America was a relatively new country and Webster's particular contribution was to show that the region spoke a different dialect from Britain, and so he wrote a dictionary with many spellings differing from the standard. Many of these changes were initiated unilaterally by Webster. Webster also argued for many "simplifications" to the idiomatic spelling of the period. Somewhat ironically, many, although not all, of his simplifications fell into common usage alongside the original versions, resulting in a situation even more confused than before. Many words are shortened and differ from other versions of English. Spellings such as center are used instead of centre in other versions of English. Conversely, American English sometimes favors words that are morphologically more complex, whereas British English uses clipped forms, such as AmE transportation and BrE transport or where the British form is a back-formation, such as AmE burglarize and BrE burgle (from burglar).

English words that arose in the U.S.

A number of words that arose in the United States have become common, to varying degrees, in English as it is spoken internationally. Although its origin is disputed, the most famous word is probably OK, which is sometimes used in other languages as well. Other American introductions include "belittle," "gerrymander" (from Elbridge Gerry), "blizzard", "teenager", and many more.

English words obsolete outside the U.S.

A number of words that originated in the English of the British Isles are still in everyday use in North America, but are no longer used in most varieties of British English. The most conspicuous of these words are fall, the season; to quit, as in "to cease an activity" (as opposed to "to leave a location" as still used in most other Anglophone countries); and gotten as a past participle of get. Americans are more likely than Britons to name a stream whose breadth or volume is judged insufficient for it to be a river or a creek. The word diaper goes back at least to Shakespeare, and usage was maintained in the U.S. and Canada, but was replaced in the British Isles with nappy. Some of these words are still used in various dialects of the British Isles, but not in formal standard British English. Many of these older words have cognates in Lowland Scots. The subjunctive mood is livelier in North American English than it is in British English; it appears in some areas as a spoken usage, and is considered obligatory in more formal contexts in American English. British English has a strong tendency to replace subjunctives with auxiliary verb constructions.

Regional differences

Main article: American English regional differences Spoken American English is not homogeneous throughout the country, and various regional and ethnic variants exist. These differences affect both pronunciation and the lexicon, and can make one accent a little difficult for speakers of another accent to understand. General American is the name given to any American accent that is relatively free of noticeable regional influences. It enjoys high prestige among Americans, but is not a standard accent in the way that Received Pronunciation is in England.

References

External links

- [http://www.pbs.org/speak/ Do You Speak American]: PBS special
- [http://cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/dialect/ Dialect Survey] of the United States, by Bert Vaux et al., Harvard University. The answers to various questions about pronunciation, word use etc. can be seen in relationship to the regions where they are predominant.
- [http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html Phonological Atlas of North America] at the University of Pennsylvania
- [http://students.csci.unt.edu/~kun Guide to Regional English Pronunciation] includes working versions of the Telsur Project maps from the Phonologial Atlas site
- [http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/ The American•British British•American Dictionary]
- [http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/ Speech Accent Archive]
- [http://www.world-english.org/ World English Organization]
- [http://www.esuus.org English Speaking Union of the United States]
- [http://canadianenglish1.narod.ru American Canadian British English Lexical Differences In One Table]
- [http://australianenglish1.narod.ru Australian American British English Lexical Differences In One Table And More]
- [http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/words_list/british_american.htm British, American, Australian English - Lists and Online Exercises]
- [http://www.globalenglishsalon.com/ Listen to spoken American English (midwest

Minority

The definition of a minority group can vary, depending on specific context, but generally refers to either a sub-group that does not form either a majority or a plurality of the total population, or a group that, while not necessarily a numerical minority, is disadvantaged or otherwise has less power (whether political or economic) than a dominant group. Examples of minorities in this latter context include women in some countries and African Americans in Mississippi in the 1920s.[http://academic.udayton.edu/race/01race/minor01.htm] In a socio-economic context, the term "minority" tends to refer to groups of people who, according to a particular set of criteria, are fewer in population than other ethnic groups. All criteria for ethnicity have bearing on designating a minority — language, nationality, religion or culture. Often this means it is outnumbered by at least one other sub-group, but not always. In politics, a minority government may be one which is formed by a party with a plurality of seats in the national legislature, when no majority party exists.

Assumptions

In the United States, the term minority typically refers to members of the non-white population, but as the numerical, social, economic, political and cultural influence of whites erodes over time in the US, and the "browning of America" is now an irreversible process, the wisdom of using the term "minority" to identify non-whites is increasingly questioned and considered offensive.

In sociology

A majority, in sociological terms, is that segment of the population that outnumbers all others combined, one that is dominant. The term minority is unavoidably associated with the political movements which push for assimilation, in which the minority group sheds its distinctive traits and is absorbed into the dominant group. Generally speaking, a minority is any disadvantaged group, regardless of their size in comparison to the rest of the population. An example would be blacks in South Africa under the apartheid system.

In politics and government

In the politics of some countries, a minority is an ethnic group that is recognized as such by respective laws of its country and therefore has some rights that other groups lack. Speakers of a legally-recognized minority language, for instance, might have the right to education or communication with the government in their mother tongue. Countries that have special provisions for minorities include China, Germany, India, Russia, and the United Kingdom (which does maintain the concept of a British supra-nation, however). Differing minority groups often are not given identical treatment. Some groups are too small or too indistinct compared to the majority, that they either identify as part of the same nation as the members of the majority, or they identify as a separate nation but are ignored by the majority because of the costs or some other aspect of providing preferences. For example, a member of a particularly small ethnic group might be forced to check "Other" on a checklist of different backgrounds, and consequently might receive fewer privileges than a member of a more defined group. Many contemporary governments prefer to assume the people they rule all belong to the same nationality rather than separate ones based on ethnicity. The United States asks for race and ethnicity on its official census forms, which thus breaks up and organizes its population into different sub-groups, but primarily on racial origin rather than national one. Spain does not divide its nationals by ethnic group, although it does maintain an official notion of minority languages. Some minorities are so relatively large or historically or otherwise important that the system is set up in a way to ensure complete equality. As an example, the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina recognizes the three main nations, none of which constitute a numerical majority, as constitutive nations, see nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The issue of establishing minority groups, and determining the extent of privileges they might derive from their status, is controversial. There are some who argue that minorities are owed special recognition and rights, while others feel that minorities are unjustified in demanding special rights, as this amounts to preferential discrimination and could hamper the ability of the minority to integrate itself into mainstream society - perhaps to the point at which the minority follows a path to separatism or supremacism. In Canada, some feel that the failure of the dominant English-speaking majority to assimilate French Canadians has given rise to Quebec separatism. One particularly controversial issue is affirmative action, or positive discrimination: the idea that minorities should be granted special privileges that the majority does not enjoy. An example of this is when an individual of minority status is given preference for acceptance to a university over a more- or equally-qualified non-minority, in order to fulfill a quota of minorities in the student body. Critics of these policies often refer to them as reverse discrimination and argue that they are perpetrating new wrongs to counter old ones, and instilling a sense of victimhood in the majority. Proponents of the polices argue that the end result—a more diversified student body—justifies the means. The debate is likely to continue into the future.

Links

- [http://www.eurominority.org Eurominority - Organization for the European Minorities (Stateless Nations and national minorities)]
- [http://www.ecmi.de ECMI - European Centre for Minority Issues]
- [http://www.minorityrights.org Minority Rights Group International]
- [http://academic.udayton.edu/race/01race/minor01.htm What is a Minority Group?] definitions from Dayton Law School. Category:Social groups Category:Voting theory als:Ethnische Minderheit ja:社会的少数者

Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism is the moral theory that equality ought to prevail throughout society. One can best understand various types of egalitarianism by asking, "Who is supposed to be equal?" and "In what respect are they supposed to be equal?" The English word is derived from the French word égal meaning equal or level. Almost all theories of egalitarianism regard humans as the relevant group among whom equality should prevail. However, some yay versions of utilitarianism, such as Peter Singer's, include animals and maintain that the pleasures and pains of every animal, not only human animals, should count equally in moral deliberation. Singer has defended this view on what he calls the principle of equal consideration of interests. The argument is outlined in his essay [http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-m/singer02.htm "All Animals Are Equal"]. Common forms of egalitarianism are material or economic egalitarianism, moral egalitarianism, legal egalitarianism, democratic egalitarianism, luck egalitarianism, political egalitarianism, gender egalitarianism and opportunity egalitarianism.
- According to material egalitarianism :everyone ought to be equal with respect to material possessions.
- According to legal egalitarianism :everyone ought to be considered equal under the law.
- According to moral egalitarianism :each person is of equal moral worth.
- According to democratic egalitarianism :everyone ought to have an equal voice in public affairs.
- According to luck egalitarianism :everyone ought to strive to redistribute the good and bad luck such that the lucky help the unlucky.
- According to political egalitarianism :everyone ought to be equal in political power.
- According to opportunity egalitarianism :everyone ought to be equal in economic opportunity.

Examples of egalitarianism

Different kinds of egalitarianism can sometimes conflict, while in other situations they may be indispensable to each other. For instance, communism is an egalitarian doctrine according to which everyone is supposed to enjoy material equality. However, because material inequality is pervasive in the current economic systems, some form of material redistribution is necessary. And since those who enjoy the greatest material wealth are not likely to wish to part with it, some form of coercive mechanism must exist in the transition period before communism. But if the coercive powers of redistribution are vested in some people and not in others, inequalities of political power emerge. History has shown, in the former Soviet Union for instance, that people who are granted coercive redistributive powers often abuse them. Indeed, those with political power were known to redistribute vastly unequal shares of material resources to themselves, thereby completely confounding the justification for their unequal political status. Therefore, most Marxists now agree that communism can only be achieved if the coercive powers of redistribution needed during the transitional period are vested in a democratic body whose powers are limited by various checks and balances, in order to prevent abuse. In other words, they argue that political egalitarianism is indispensable to material egalitarianism. Meanwhile, other defenders of material egalitarianism have rejected Marxist communism in favor of such views as Libertarian socialism, which does not advocate the transitional use of the state as a means of redistribution. The United States Declaration of Independence included a kind of moral and legal egalitarianism. Because "all men are created equal" the state is under an obligation to treat each person equally under the law. Originally this statement excluded women, slaves and other minority groups, but over time this kind of egalitarianism has won wide adherence and is a core component of modern civil-rights policies. Other kinds of egalitarianism are more controversial. Economic egalitarianism, popular with liberals throughout much of the 20th Century, has given way to a concern not that everyone be strictly equal in material possession, but rather that everyone be equal in having enough material goods to successfully fulfill his or her native human capacities. As long as everyone's basic needs are met, material inequality can flourish. Libertarianism can be understood as radical political egalitarianism, according to which everyone is equal (or nearly equal) in coercive political power, because no one has any (or those who have it have little and are strictly limited in their use of it). However, political egalitarians, such as the libertarians, often face strong criticism from economic egalitarians who worry about the extremes of economic inequality made possible by unfettered markets.

External links

- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egalitarianism/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry] Category:Political theories

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. In a commercial setting, the employer conceives of a productive activity, generally with the intention of creating profits, and the employee contributes labour to the enterprise, usually in return for payment of wages. Employment also exists in the public, nonprofit and household sectors. In the United States, the "standard" employment contract is considered to be at-will meaning that the employer and employee are both free to terminate the employment at any time and for any cause, or for no cause at all. To the extent that employment or the economic equivalent is not universal, unemployment exists. Employment is almost universal in capitalist societies. Opponents of capitalism such as Marxists oppose the capitalist employment system, considering it to be unfair that the people who contribute the majority of work to an organization do not receive a proportionate share of the profit. However, the surrealist and the situationist movements were among the few groups to actually oppose work, and during the partially surrealist-influenced events of May 1968 the walls of the Sorbonne were covered with anti-work graffiti. Labourers often talk of "getting a job", or "having a job". This conceptual metaphor of a "job" as a possession has led to its use in slogans such as "money for jobs, not bombs". Similar conceptions are that of "land" as a possession (real estate) or intellectual rights as a possession (intellectual property).

Employer

An employer is a person or institution that hires employees or workers. Employers offer wages to the workers in exchange for the worker's labor-power. Employers include everything from individuals hiring a babysitter to governments and businesses which hired many thousands of employees. In most western societies governments are the largest single employers, but most of the work force is employed in small and medium businesses in the private sector. Note that although employees may contribute to the evolution of an enterprise, the employer maintains autonomous control over the productive base of land and capital, and is the entity named in contracts. The employer typically also maintains ownership of intellectual property created by an employee within the scope of employment and as a function thereof. These are known as "works for hire". Within large organizations the management of employees is often handled by Human Resources departments.

Employee

An employee is any person hired by an employer – typically, a worker hired to do a specific "job". Typical examples include accountants, solicitors, lawyers, photographers, among many other worker categorizations. There are differing classes of employee. Some are permanent and receive a guaranteed salary, while others are hired on short term contracts or as consultants. In this respect, it is important to distinguish independent contractors who are treated differently both in law and in most taxation systems. The employee contributes labour and expertise to an endeavour. Employees perform the discrete activity of economic production. Of the three factors of production, employees usually provide the labor. Some companies feel that a happier work force is a better one and thus offer extra benefits to improve team spirit and performance. However, other employers try to increase profits by giving low wages and few benefits. To resist this, employees can organize into labor unions (American English), or trade unions (British English), who represent most of the available work force and must therefore be listened to by the management. This is the source of considerable bad feeling between the two sides, and sometimes even violence.

Alternatives

An individual who entirely owns the business for which he labours is known as self-employed, although if a self-employed individual has only one client for whom he performs work, he may be considered an employee of that client for tax purposes. Self-employment often leads to incorporation. Incorporation offers certain protections of one's personal assets. Laws of incorporation vary from state to state with California having the most incorporated businesses of any state in the U.S. Workers who are not paid wages, such as volunteers, are generally not considered as being employed. Someone who works under obligation for the purpose of fulfilling a debt without pay is known as a slave and slaveowners are also not considered employers. Some historians suggest that slavery is older than employment, but both arrangements have existed for all recorded history.

Employment Research and Education

[http://www.ilr.cornell.edu Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations] [http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp Labor and Worklife Program] at Harvard Law School

Films

Death on the Job, Filmmakers: William Guttentag and Vince DiPersio,1991 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/ Office Space], written and directed by Mike Judge.

External links

- [http://www.asian-nation.org/employment.shtml Asian-Nation: Employment & Occupational Patterns of Asian Americans]
- [http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?r.l1=1073858790&topicId=1073858787&furlname=employment&furlparam=employment&domain=www.businesslink.gov.uk Comprehensive overview of employment law and best practice for the United Kingdom]
- [http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.toc.htm United States Department of Labor report on the current employment situation]
- [http://www.ozfreeonline.com/jobs/ OzFreeOnline.com: Australian Job Search Listing]
-
- [http://www.GoYocal.com/ GoYocal.com: UK Job Listings]
-
- [http://london.GoYocal.com/ London.GoYocal.com: London Job Listings]
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- [http://Birmingham.GoYocal.com/ Birmingham.GoYocal.com: Birmingham Job Listings]
- ja:雇用

Health care

Health care or healthcare is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions [http://www.answers.com/healthcare&r=67#copyright]. The healthcare industry is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing industries, consuming over 10 percent of gross domestic product of most developed nations. Prior to the popularisation of the neologism healthcare, English-speakers referred to medicine or to the health sector and spoke of the treatment and prevention of illness and disease.

Healthcare as an industry

The industry includes the delivery of health services by doctors and other allied health providers. Usually such services receive payment from the patient or from the patient's insurance company; although they may be government-financed (such as the National Health Service in the United Kingdom) or delivered by charities or volunteers, particularly in poorer countries. Health care can form an enormous part of a country's economy. In 2003, health care costs paid to hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories, pharmacies, medical device manufacturers and other components of the health care system, consumed 15.3 percent [http://www.cms.hhs.gov/statistics/nhe/historical/highlights.asp] of the GDP of the United States, the largest of any country in the world. In 2001, for the OECD countries the average was 8.4 percent [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/10/20/2789777.pdf] with the United States (13.9%), Switzerland (10.9%), and Germany (10.7%) being the top three.

Medical and social models of healthcare

The more generally accepted view of healthcare is that improvements result from advancements in medical science. The medical model of health focuses on the eradication of illness through diagnosis and effective treatment. In contrast the social model of health places emphasis on changes that can be made in society and in people's own lifestyles to make the population healthier. It defines illness from the point of view of the individual's functioning within their society rather than by monitoring for changes in biological or physiological signs. See also Medical model of disability, Social model of disability, Preventive medicine.

External links

- [http://www.eldis.org/health HRC/Eldis Health Resource Guide] New research and other resources on health in developing countries

USA-specific

- [http://www.nndb.com/lists/620/000098326/ Health care company profiles at NNDB].
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9212/health.htm Students with Specialized Health Care Needs].
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1993/health.htm Health Care, Nutrition, and Goal One].
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1996-3/2000.htm Education and Health Care Advocacy].
- [http://www.free-health-care.com Free-health-care]
- [http://www.best-home-remedies.com Total health Care]
- [http://www.houstonmedcenter.com A Houston Guide to the Texas Medical Center]
- [http://www.womens-health-club.com/ Women's Health]

Reference

-
- ja:医療

Racialism

Racialism is the controversial belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, the existence of which are themselves often disputed. Although the term is sometimes used in contrast to racism, especially in academia, it is generally, and mistakenly, used synonymously with racism. In separatist identity politics, the term may be used to emphasise perceived social and cultural differences between races. Separatists may say that although they do not see themselves as superior to - or feel hatred towards - other races, they nevertheless believe that the races should not live together (see white separatism and black separatism). In this context the Rastafari and other organisations for black nationalism advocate that racialism facilitates "racial pride" and cultural rebirth. Racialists often cite purportedly scientific works such as Race, Evolution and Behavior by J. Philippe Rushton, IQ and the Wealth of Nations by Richard Lynn, and The Bell Curve by R.J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray. Rushton's work in particular is sometimes described as scientific racism by critics, and is regarded by David Suzuki and others as pseudoscience, or as otherwise errant .

Distinguishing from racism

While "racism" refers both to individual attitudes and group behaviour, "racialism" usually implies the existence of a social or political movement. Supporters of racialism say that "racism" implies racial supremacism and a harmful intent, whereas "racialism" indicates a strong interest in matters of race without these connotations. Instead, their focus is on "racial pride", identity politics, and / or racial segregation. Organisations such as NAAWP insist on these distinctions, and vehemently oppose state sponsored racism. The relationship between the two concepts is expressed at length by Kwame Anthony Appiah in his book In My Father's House: :"the view – which I shall call racialism – that there are heritable characteristics, possessed by members of our species, which allow us to divide them into a small set of races, in such a way that all the members of these races share certain traits and tendencies with each other that they do not share with members of any other race. These traits and tendencies characteristic of a race constitute, on the racialist view, a sort of racial essence; it is part of the content of racialism that the essential heritable characteristics of the "Races of Man" account for more than the visible morphological characteristics – skin colour, hair type, facial features – on the basis of which we make our informal classifications. Racialism is at the heart of nineteenth-century attempts to develop a science of racial difference, but it appears to have been believed by others – like Hegel, before then, and Crummell and many Africans since – who have had no interest in developing scientific theories.

Use by white separatist and white supremacist groups

In the present-day U.S., the term "racialism" is commonly used by white separatist and white supremacist groups such as Christian Identity, Aryan Nations, the American Nazi Party, and White Aryan Resistance These groups may say that they do not view themselves as superior to — and do not exhibit hatred towards — other races, but only believe in separation between races. In the unique historical context of the U.S., the word "racist" strongly evokes white-on-black racism; the use of the term "racialist" by these groups has more symmetric connotations of portraying white supremacism as being simply the white analog of black civil rights struggles. For example, former Louisiana State Representative and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke's National Association for the Advancement of White People seeks to portray itself as the white counterpart of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. This analogy is controversial, and is rejected by the black civil rights movement.

W. E. B. DuBois

civil rights movement W.E.B. DuBois argues that racialism is the philosophical belief that differences between the races exist, be it biological, social, psychological, or in the realm of the soul. He then goes on to argue that racism is using this belief to push forward the argument that one's particular race is superior to the others. Therefore, Dubois separates the conditions of racism from racism itself. (Anthony Kwame Appiah summarises Dubois' position in his book In My Father's House, chapter 3.) Racialism in this view is a value-neutral philosophy, while racism is a value-charged ideology. Molefi Kete Asante criticises DuBois for this very racialism in "The Afrocentric Idea".

Identity politics

Within identity politics, many groups have emphasised their own race, and the importance or racial differences, whether they be cultural, economic, biological, or political. The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, and similar organisations, advocate the welfare of a specific ethnicity, without a harmful intent towards others.

External links

- [http://www.nbufront.org/html/MastersMuseums/JHClarke/ArticlesEssays/RaceInWesternThought.html John Henrik Clarke] - Race: An Evolving Issue in Western Social Thought

References

# [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-75-663-3727/science_technology/david_suzuki/clip5 http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-75-663-3727/science_technology/david_suzuki/clip5], retrieved August 18, 2005. # [http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2004/09/militias-march-on.html http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2004/09/militias-march-on.html], retrieved August 18, 2005. # Approving uses of the term were found on [http://aryan-nations.org http://aryan-nations.org], retrieved August 18, 2005. # Approving uses of the term were found on [http://americannaziparty.com http://americannaziparty.com], retrieved August 18, 2005. # Approving uses of the term were found on [http://resist.com http://resist.com], retrieved August 18, 2005. # For example, an August 18, 2005 Google search of the Nation of Islam web site at [http://noi.org http://noi.org] returned many hits for "racism," but none for "racialism."

Sources

- Molefi Kete Asante (1998) The Afrocentric Idea - ISBN 156639595X
- Paul C. Taylor (2000) - Appiah's Uncompleted Argument: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Reality of Race. (philosopher K. Anthony Appiah) : An article from: Social Theory and Practice ISBN B0008HB770
- Kwame Anthony Appiah (1993) - In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture - ISBN 0195068521
- [http://folio.legis.state.wi.us/cgi-bin/om_isapi.dll?clientID=50370482&advquery=reggie%20white&headingswithhits=on&infobase=indxjrnl97.nfo&record=&recordswithhits=on&zz= Reggie White's Speech before the Wisconsin State Assembly] (click 778)
- Sanneh, Kelefa "After the Beginning Again: The Afrocentric Ordeal" Transition - Issue 87 (Volume 10, Number 3), 2001, pp. 66-89
- Kennedy, Paul and Nicholls Anthony (eds.) Nationalist and racialist movements in Britain and Germany before 1914 (Saint Antony's College Press, 1981).
- Dobratz, Betty A. "White power, white pride!": The white separatist movement in the United States (Twayne Publishers, NY, 1997).
- Melvern, Linda. Conspiracy to murder: The Rwanda genocide (Verso, London, 2004).
- Snyder, Louis L. The Idea of Racialism: Meaning and History. (Princeton, NJ, 1962).
- Stokes, Geoffrey (ed.). The Politics of Identity in Australia. See: John Kane, "Racialism and democracy" ([http://titles.cambridge.org/catalogue.asp?isbn=052158356X Cambrdige University Press], 1997).
- Arter, David. "Black Faces in the Blond Crowd: Populist Racialism in Scandinavia", Parliamentary Affairs, July 1992, vol. 45:3, pp. 357-372.
- Odocha O. Race and racialism in scientific research and publication in the Journal of the National Medical Association. ([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10800300&dopt=Abstract National Library of Medicine], 2000).
- Zubaida, Sami (ed.). Race and Racialism (Tavistock, London, 1970).
- The African National Congress and the policy of non-Racialism: A study of the membership issues ([http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=lp3efmqgrgdxunuqva6q&referrer=parent&backto=issue,1,6;journal,4,9;linkingpublicationresults,1:104654,1 South African Journal of Political Studies], 2002).
- Racial Identity, the Apartheid State, and the Limits of Political Mobilization and Democratic Reform in South Africa: The Case of the University of the Western ([http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S1532706XID0301_03? Teachers College, Columbia University], 2003).
- Lee, Woojin and Roemer, John. Electoral Consequences of Racialism for Redistribution in the United States: 1972-1992 (California Institute of Technology, [http://www.hss.caltech.edu/Events/SCW/Papers/leew.pdf Division of the Humanities and social Sciences][PDF], 2002).
- Thompson, Walter Thomas. James Anthony Froude on Nation and Empire: A Study in Victorian Racialism (Taylor & Francis, London, 1998).
- UNESCO General Conference. Declaration of Fundamental Principles concerning the Contribution of the Mass Media to Strengthening Peace and International Understanding, to the Promotion of Human Rights and to Countering Racialism, Apartheid and Incitement to War ([http://www2.hawaii.edu/~rvincent/funprin.htm University of Hawaii], 1978). Category:Core issues in ethics Category:Eugenics Category:Race

Race

A race is a population of humans distinguished from other populations. The most widely used racial categories are based on visible traits (especially skin color and facial features). Conceptions of race, as well as specific racial groupings, vary by culture and time and are often controversial due to their impact on social identity hence identity politics. Since the 1940s, evolutionary scientists have rejected the view of race according to which a number of finite lists of essential characteristics could be used to determine a like number of races. By the 1960s, data and models from population genetics called into question taxonomic understandings of race, and many have turned from conceptualizing and analyzing human variation in terms of race to doing so in terms of populations and clines instead. However, many scientists believe that race is a valid and useful concept. Moreover, since the 1990s, data and models from genomics and cladistics have resulted in a revolution in our understanding of human evolution, which has led some to propose a new "lineage" definition of race. These scientists have made related arguments that races are valid when understood as fuzzy sets, clusters, or extended families. Currently, opinions differ substantially within and among academic disciplines. Many evolutionary and social scientists, drawing on such biological research, think common race definitions, or any race definitions pertaining to humans, lack taxonomic rigour and validity. They argue that race definitions are imprecise, arbitrary, derived from custom, and that the races observed vary according to the culture examined. They further maintain that race is best understood as a social construct. Other scientists, however, have argued that this shift is motivated more by political than scientific reasons.

Historical origins of "race"

social construct.]]

History of the term

Given our visual acuity and complex social relationships, humans presumably have always observed and speculated about the physical differences among individuals and groups. But different societies have attributed markedly different meanings to these distinctions. The division of humanity into distinct "races" can be traced as far back as the Ancient Egyptian sacred text the Book of Gates, which identifies four categories that are now conventionally labelled "Egyptians", "Asiatics", "Libyans", and "Nubians". However, such distinctions tended to merge differences defined by features such as skin color, with tribal and national identity. Classical civilizations from Rome to China tended to invest much more importance in family or tribal affiliations than in physical appearance (Dikötter 1992; Goldenberg 2003). Ancient Greek and Roman authors also attempted to explain and categorize visible biological differences between peoples known to them. Such categories often also included fantastical human-like beings that were supposed to exist in far-away lands. Some Roman writers adhered to an environmental determinism in which climate could affect the appearance and character of groups (Isaac 2004). But in many ancient civilizations, individuals with widely varying physical appearances could become full members of a society by growing up within that society or by adopting the society's cultural norms (Snowden 1983; Lewis 1990). Medieval models of race mixed Classical ideas with the notion that humanity as a whole was descended from Shem, Ham and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, producing distinct Semitic (Asian), Hamitic (African), and Japhetic (European) peoples. The word race entered the English language in the 16th century, from French race "race, breed, lineage" (which in turn was probably a loan from Italian razza). Meanings of the term in the 16th century included "wines with a characteristic flavour", "people with common occupation", and "generation". The meaning "tribe" or "nation" emerged in the 17th century. The modern meaning, "one of the major divisions of mankind", dates to the late 18th century, but it never became exclusive (cf. continued use of "the human race"). The ultimate origin of the word is unknown; suggestions include Arabic ra'is meaning "head", but also "beginning" or "origin". The English word "race", along with many of the ideas now associated with the term, were products of the European era of exploration (Smedley 1999). As Europeans encountered people from different parts of the world, they speculated about the physical, social, and cultural differences between human groups. The rise of the African slave trade, which gradually displaced an earlier trade in slaves from throughout the world, created a further incentive to categorize human groups to justify the barbarous treatment of African slaves (Meltzer 1993). Drawing on classical sources and on their own internal interactions—for example, the hostility between the English and Irish was a powerful influence on early thinking about the differences between people (Takaki 1993)—Europeans began to sort themselves and others into groups associated with physical appearance and with deeply ingrained behaviors and capacities. A set of "folk beliefs" took hold that linked inherited physical differences between groups to inherited intellectual, behavioral, and moral qualities (Banton 1977). Although similar ideas can be found in other cultures (Lewis 1990; Dikötter 1992), they appear not to have had as much influence on social structures as they did in Europe and the parts of the world colonized by Europeans.

History of race research

The first scientific attempts to categorize race date from the 17th century, along with the development of European imperialism and colonization around the world. The first post-Classical published classification of humans into distinct races seems to be François Bernier's Nouvelle division de la terre par les différents espèces ou races qui l'habitent ("New division of Earth by the different species or races which inhabit it"), published in 1684. In the 18th century, the differences between human groups became a focus of scientific investigation (Todorov 1993). Initially, scholars focused on cataloging and describing "The Natural Varieties of Mankind," as Johann Friedrich Blumenbach entitled his 1775 text (which established the five major divisions of humans still reflected in some racial classifications). But as the science of anthropology took shape in the 19th century, European and American scientists increasingly sought explanations for the behavioral and cultural differences they attributed to groups (Stanton 1960). For example, they measured the shapes and sizes of skulls and related the results to group differences in intelligence or other attributes (Lieberman 2001). Both before and after the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, a debate raged in Europe over whether different human groups had the same origin or were the product of separate creations or evolutionary lineages (Wolpoff and Caspari 1997). From the 17th through the 19th centuries, the merging of folk beliefs about group differences with scientific explanations of those differences produced what one scholar has called an "ideology of race" (Smedley 1999). According to this ideology, races are primordial, natural, enduring, and distinct. Some groups might be the result of mixture between formerly distinct populations, but careful study can distinguish the ancestral races that had combined to produce admixed groups. In the 19th century a number of natural scientists wrote on race:

Affirmative action

Purpose

History

Other approaches

Consultations

United States

Basis in law

Implementation in universities

Important Supreme Court cases

In individual U.S. states

Washington

Other countries

Results

Criticism

Demeaning racialism

Quotas

Cultural differences

Biological Differences

Disadvantaging working-class non-minorities

Criticism by Thomas Sowell

Counter-arguments

Libertarian view

See also

Organizations

Miscellaneous

References

American English

History

Phonology

Differences in British English and American English

English words that arose in the U.S.

English words obsolete outside the U.S.

Regional differences

See also

Further reading

References

External links

Minority

Assumptions

In sociology

In politics and government

See also

Links

Egalitarianism

Examples of egalitarianism

See also

External links

Employment

Employer

Employee

Alternatives

Employment Research and Education

Films

See also

External links

Health care

Healthcare as an industry

Medical and social models of healthcare

See also

External links

USA-specific

Reference

Racialism

Distinguishing from racism

Use by white separatist and white supremacist groups

W. E. B. DuBois

Identity politics

See also

External links

References

Sources

Race

Historical origins of "race"

History of the term

History of race research