What are the controversies surrounding affirmative action programs?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Police over the years had become used to the neutral civil service approach to hiring officers with no political interference. Affirmative action proponents made an argument that there were less females and minorities (normally defined as African Americans and Spanish speaking Americans) in many large metropolitan and state police departments. The demographic argument was usually true in terms of the make-up of the local population from which police departments drew candidates for police service. The affirmative action proponents said that civil service testing interviews and background checks did not solve this problem.
A series of judgments in court cases then set up racial, Spanish speaking ancestry groups and gender quotas for police departments, which gave preference to these groups over white male candidates. White males were furious and felt this was unconstitutional and discriminatory. For many years the courts have upheld affirmative action programs. The result has been an increase in women, African Americans and Spanish-speaking ancestry groups in police departments.

Based on increased representation of underrepresented persons in departments, most affirmative action court mandated have ended but departments pay strict attention to their hiring practices in order to recruit these populations. Litigation over representation continues in terms of promotions.