Affirmative Action is a policy that goes beyond Equal Employment Opportunity by requiring organizations to comply with the law and correct past discriminatory practices by increasing the number of minorities and women in specific positions.

During the years, affirmative action has been met with mixed feelings; supporters of the program believed it necessary for a desegregated society, while its adversaries were quick to point out its imperfections.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy, issued an Executive Order which established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity with the mission to eradicate discrimination in employment in the government sector. The order required every federal contract to include the pledge that "The Contractor will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin. The Contractor will take Affirmative Action, to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, wi

Supporters of Affirmative Action believe that group compensation is a very efficient way to compensate mass injustice. They say that when a member of a minority group is victimized, the whole community is stigmatized. If we consider compensating only those individuals who were victims, then how do we compensate those who lived as slaves from birth to death a hundred years ago? Those people who believe that racial discrimination does not exist today are sorely misinformed. Racial discrimination is alive and well in most modern societies today, except that it is not as severe as it was in the early days.

There were 712 vacancies "created" in banks for nationals last year alone. Banks and other organizations that are required to have an Emiratization program that failed to meet the quotas set for them will have to 'contribute to a common fund that will be used to train citizens for a career in banking. Also, a report stated that "1,046 female and 197 male expatriate teachers will be terminated" and the jobs will be replaced by UAE nationals.

A lot of organizations have successfully applied this policy and an example is the National Bank of Dubai. With close to 30 per cent of the Bank's workforce - over 300 people - being UAE Nationals, the National Bank of Dubai is one of the largest employers of Emiratis/UAE nationals not only in the banking sector but also across the UAE private sector as a whole.

Affirmative Action: Beneficial or Detrimental

Most people against Affirmative Action condemn the ‘quota system’ and a lot of proponents of Affirmative Action are quick to defend it. For them a quota actually implies a target or a goal set by a company that needs to be met. These goals and targets provide something tangible and encourage managers and people to work towards these things. Another very good motive, according to the backers of the Quota system, for insisting on goals when it comes to hiring and admissions for minorities, is the fact that ignorant biases can have a strong influence on the judgments we make without our ever realizing it. Goals and targets force us to focus on the end result and become aware of how our choices in particular circumstances could be a factor to overall trends which are blatantly unfair. To its proponents, quota system is simply an end that justifies the means.

Some topics in this essay:
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