Affirmative action in the US: The simmering debate.

(From Business Line)

from BUSINESS LINE, June 30, 2006 The affirmative action concept, which has for long triggered a debate in the US, requires positive steps to be taken to provide equal employment opportunity. The action plans are subject to mandatory compliance procedures, through which Corporate America is committed to ensuring diversity in its workforce and encouraging suppliers belonging to minorities

Affirmative action preferences had to be sufficiently flexible, temporary in duration, and narrowly tailored to avoid becoming rigid 'quotas'

Today, the term affirmative action (AA) is ubiquitous in the context of the Government's resolve to engage the private sector in fulfilling the aspirations of a section of the country's youth

Varyingly interpreted, the affirmative action concept has for long triggered a nationwide debate in the US

An interesting affirmative action analysis, though countered by some critics, came up in Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, by William G. Bowen and Derek Bok. The river in The Shape of the River is a metaphor drawn from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi

Twain created an image of the river as physically central to the US and symbolically central to the progress of the country". For the …