Affirmative Action: Biased for African-Americans or a Fix for Historical Inequality?

Introduction

An integral part of the post-racial shift in the 1990s was the questioning of affirmative action as redress for historical inequalities.  Formulated in the late 1960s and 1970s, affirmative action acknowledged that African Americans historically and in the present had inherently unequal access to the same educational and career opportunities open to their white counterparts.  These inequalities could be seen in the prevalence of segregated schools and in the ways that teachers treated African American students differently than white students.  In arguing for affirmative action, African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s demanded that these inequalities be acknowledged in the admissions process for colleges and universities and on the job market.  They demanded that companies and schools take into account the unique challenges of being African American in their hiring and recruitment processes.[1]  The federal government agreed with civil rights activists and in 1972, it passed the Equal Employment Act, which established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  This law provided official government support for affirmative action.[2]