**TL;DR – Affirmative action is one of many small ways to remedy institutional racism** Compared to POC, white people (as a whole) hold significant advantages in nearly every part of society. Slavery, segregation, and other racial injustices have a strong legacy in the US; even disregarding lived experiences, [the statistics](https://www.radford.edu/~junnever/bw.htm) make it very clear that white people are generally much better off in terms of income, wealth, and education. These are cyclical problems that people pass between generations—wealthy, educated parents are more likely to produce wealthy, educated children. Affirmative action, both in education and employment, is a way of breaking this cycle. At a baseline, [racism is entrenched](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/06/04/the-banality-of-racism-in-education/) within every level of the education system, and thus affirmative action merely helps to even out an already-imbalanced playing field; it is _not_ about racial favoritism, rather, improving racial equity. It is possible that, at some point, affirmative action won't be necessary—when people of all races have similar odds of ending up _successful_—but it remains necessary as a way of mitigating institutional and systemic racism.

**Does Affirmative Action help to combat systemic racism or discriminate against ineligible candidates?** • [Affirmative Action](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/affirmative-action.asp) is a policy used in education admissions and job recruitment that aims to increase opportunities for groups of people who have been underrepresented in these areas or industries. It is a scheme to counteract society’s bias and systemic discrimination of certain groups of people, for matters of race, gender, disability, and religion, among many other reasons. Affirmative Action was first developed in the USA to carry out the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and continues to be used especially to ensure that People of Colour are given educational and employment opportunities. • Many people believe that Affirmative Action is a necessary policy that works to create an anti-racist society. [Equity](https://hbr.org/2020/06/moving-beyond-diversity-toward-racial-equity) is vital to this concept: the idea that the world as it exists is not equal, and in order to reach equality, certain groups of people need special measures. • However, some people believe that Affirmative Action is unequal because it prioritises candidates for no other reason than their race (or other underrepresented characteristic). Some may argue that Affirmative Action is racist towards People of Colour, because they understand it to reduce their skills and achievements down to their [skin colour](https://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/business_computer_ethics/the%20case%20against%20affirmative%20action.htm). • Others argue that Affirmative Action is racially prejudiced against white people because such schemes may disregard white candidates merely because of their skin colour. However, many disagree and argue that due to the systemic nature of racism, [white people cannot experience racism](https://www.aclrc.com/myth-of-reverse-racism).

**No, affirmative action is not racist. If there had never been racism, colonisation, segregation, slavery etc. to begin with, then as society we wouldn’t need it.** Affirmative action is like righting the wrongs of history. And not having affirmative action, would be like turning a blind eye to racist hiring and professional behaviours. There is also a huge difference between racism which is elimination of a racial group from certain elements of society and the increased inclusion of _all_ races into _all_ elements of society which is what affirmative action is aiming to do. A statistics that proves _why_ affirmative action is necessary is that: - Compared to white individuals, black individuals are twice as likely to be unemployed, and earn nearly 25 percent less when they are employed. There was a [randomised field experiment](https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/discrimination-job-market-united-states) that was conducted by Professors Mullainathan and Bertrand that examined the level of racial discrimination in the labour market. They submitted nearly 5,000 resumes in response to over 1,300 newspaper ads for sales, administrative and clerical jobs in Boston and Chicago. Resumes were randomly assigned either a black-sounding name (such as Lakisha Washington or Jamal Jones) or white-sounding name (such as Emily Walsh or Brendan Baker) to imply the applicant's race (the validity of the names' "blackness" or "whiteness" was confirmed by surveys in public areas in Chicago). Resumes with white-sounding names received 50% more interviews and call backs than those with black-sounding names. And startingly, a white-sounding name yielded as many more call-backs as an additional eight years of experience on a black-sounding names resume. From this data it can be seen that it is the _job market_ that is racist and **not** affirmative action and that in fact, affirmative action is very necessary to make sure that hiring processes are conducted fairly and without the influences of racial bias.

Affirmative action is absolutely racist. The amount of people I know who have been denied jobs due to it is shocking. If you are more qualified for the position, then you should not be denied that position based on your race. My own father was denied a job once despite having years of experience and qualifications to do it; the hiring manager explained to him "We want you to work here, but we are required by law to reject your application and wait for an African American applicant." So yes, being refused work based on your skin color is absolutely racist. It may have been established with good intentions, but I do not believe it is needed any longer.