The Journal of Ethics 15 (3):253-263 (2011)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
As a U.S. civil rights policy, affirmative action commonly denotes race-conscious and result-oriented efforts by private and public officials to correct the unequal distribution of economic opportunity and education attributed to slavery, segregation, poverty and racism. Opponents argue that affirmative action (1) violates ideals of color-blind public policies, offending moral principles of fairness and constitutional principles of equality and due process; (2) has proven to be socially and politically divisive; (3) has not made things better; (4) mainly benefits middle-class, wealthy and foreign-born blacks; (4) stigmatizes its beneficiaries; and (5) compromises the self-esteem and self-respect of beneficiaries who know that they have been awarded preferential treatment. By way of a thought experiment, imagine that after decades of public policy and experimentation, the United States public finally came to agree: affirmative action is morally and legally wrong. Employing such a thought experiment, this essay by a beneficiary of affirmative action—written in response to James Sterba’s Affirmative Action for the Future (2009)—examines duties of moral repair and the possibility that the past beneficiaries of affirmative action owe apologies, compensation or some other highly personal form of corrective accountability. Beneficiaries of affirmative action have experienced woundedness and moral insecurity. Indeed, the practice of affirmative action comes with a psychology, a set of psychological benefits and burdens whose moral logic those of us who believe in our own fallibility—as much as we believe in the justice of what we have received and conferred on others—should address.
|
Keywords | Affirmative action African American Apology Corrective justice Discrimination Race Reparation |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
DOI | 10.1007/s10892-011-9102-6 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
The Role-Model Argument and Faculty Diversity.Anita L. Allen - 1993 - Philosophical Forum 24 (1-3):267-281.
Citations of this work BETA
Blinde Flecken der Politischen Philosophie?: Impulse der Critical Philosophy of Race Für Die Analyse von Normativität, Politik Und Recht.Franziska Dübgen - 2019 - Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 67 (4):619-633.
Diskriminierung Und Verwerflichkeit. Huxleys Albtraum Und Die Rolle des Staates [Discrimination and Wrongfulness: Huxley’s Nightmare and the Role of the State].Michael Oliva Córdoba - 2020 - Zeitschrift Für Praktische Philosophie 7 (1):191-230.
Ist die Praxis bevorzugter Anstellung moralisch zulässig?Christine Bratu - 2020 - Zeitschrift Für Praktische Philosophie 7 (1):301-324.
Similar books and articles
The Case Against Affirmative Action.Louis P. Pojman - 1998 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 12 (1):97-115.
Sterba on Affirmative Action, or, It Never Was the Bus, It Was Us!Bill E. Lawson - 2011 - The Journal of Ethics 15 (3):281-290.
American and Canadian Perspectives on Affirmative Action: A Response to the Fraser Institute. [REVIEW]Paula Chegwidden & Wendy R. Katz - 1983 - Journal of Business Ethics 2 (3):191 - 202.
Affirmative Action as a Form of Restitution.Leo Groarke - 1990 - Journal of Business Ethics 9 (3):207 - 213.
Affirmative Inaction? The Aftermath of Grutter and Gratz.Richard A. Jones - 2004 - Radical Philosophy Review 7 (2):179-193.
Affirmative Action, Meritocracy, and Efficiency.Steven N. Durlauf - 2008 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 7 (2):131-158.
Affirmative Action: An Ethical Evaluation. [REVIEW]Bill Shaw - 1988 - Journal of Business Ethics 7 (10):763 - 770.
Affirmative Action and Redistributive Ethics.Richard F. America - 1986 - Journal of Business Ethics 5 (1):73 - 77.
Equality of Opportunity and Affirmative Action.Ovadia Ezra - 2007 - Philosophy in the Contemporary World 14 (1):22-37.
Symposium on Diversity and Affirmative Action: Justice and Affirmative Action.John Uglietta - unknown
The Michigan Cases and Furthering the Justification for Affirmative Action.James P. Sterba - 2004 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 18 (1):1-12.
“Group Rights” and Racial Affirmative Action.Kwame Anthony Appiah - 2011 - The Journal of Ethics 15 (3):265-280.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2011-10-18
Total views
258 ( #41,617 of 2,499,677 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
13 ( #59,208 of 2,499,677 )
2011-10-18
Total views
258 ( #41,617 of 2,499,677 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
13 ( #59,208 of 2,499,677 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads