The Politics of Stereotype: Psychology and Affirmative Action (International Contributions in Psychology)

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Affirmative Action was initially an emergency stop-gap measure to resolve a serious and immediate problem. As such, like most temporary corrective measures, it was imperfect: the guidelines vague and definition unclear, with a misguided understanding of merit. Stereotypes have not disappeared from American society. Prejudice has been transformed from overt actions in the 1950s to more subtle and indirect forms that are still prevalent. Salinas shows us that a long-term program is needed to solve the problem of inequality, not just compensate for it.

Affirmative Action was originally needed to deal with disparities - social, economic, political and educational - in America. What is needed is a new, long-term program to attack the root causes of inequality and prejudice. Salinas believes the quest to end disparity in this country must begin with educational reform, abandoning an antiquated educational model designed to serve an emerging industrial society and based on the values of the dominant white class of the time. He applies empirical evidence to reach policy conclusions moving beyond our current Affirmative Action.

The Politics of Stereotype: Psychology and Affirmative Action (International Contributions in Psychology) Review

I am very interested in this issue due to the fact that I am part of an ethic minority group. When I opened the book and I looked at the table of contents I saw questions such as what is affirmative action, what are some myths and misconceptions about it, how it is related to psychology and its relation to politics and stereotype. Just by looking at these questions this book caught my attention. I knew that this was not going to be one of those books that you could read a whole chapter and still not know what it is about.

As I started reading through the first chapter I realized that I was right. This book is straight to the point. It is filled with facts and in an issue as important as this, facts can not be ignored. I like and appreciate how the author in the begging of the book gave us a clear understanding of what affirmative action is. The book talks about its origin and how this concept has evolved through years. The author also talks about how affirmative action is not one but a number of different things that are covered. There are four different types of affirmative actions that have been identified. Affirmative action attempts to increase recruiting of qualified women and minorities. It also eliminates any obstacles that prevent minorities or women from being hired. It also plays a role in selection of university recruitments and in an employment setting. For example when minority and majority applicants are equally qualified the group membership is a deciding factor, also in another scenario of affirmative action is when members of the minority group are selected because group membership is taken into account as a major consideration. The book also addresses many other important issues that have to do with affirmative action.

I really enjoyed the chapter on myths and misconceptions. The author talks about certain myths that are part of our life. To say the truth before reading this book, I also thought that some of these statements were true. The author states that myth number one is that "affirmative action is a reverse discrimination." I never believed in this statement, and I was glad that the author had included it in the book, and that he had also included many statistics to prove both our point. Another statement that the author proved to be a myth is that "affirmative action has failed to increase female and minority representation." From what I read on the book it clearly showed that this is not true. The author also talks about the idea that some people have that affirmative action has actually not helped women and racial minorities, it has hurt them. About this issue the author writes that there is no clear evidence that affirmative action has hurt women and minorities, and even if we acknowledge the possibility, it will be outweighed by the positive effects that that affirmative action has had on its beneficiaries. A lot of people believe that affirmative action is not necessary. The author stated that affirmative action will not be necessary only when equality and equal opportunity for all is achieved in America. He also talks about a belief that I also had, that affirmative action is not supported by the majority of people. The author talks about studies that clearly show that affirmative action is supported by the majority of people. I liked the chapter because through the statistics and the facts that were included I got a real view of how affirmative action is really perceived by people, and what it has really done for our society.

The author also goes on to talk about the connection between affirmative action and psychology. The articles on this issue are very educational and very interesting. The author brings upfront very important issues such as: has affirmative action helped decrease negative attitudes and stereotypes of minorities? In answering this question the author includes previous research finding that are related to this issue. He talks about the theory of "disconfirmation" that is built on the concept that people tend to downplay the differences which exist between the people in the group that we belong too. He shows that a small number of studies strongly suggest that the repeated, systematic and interdependent contact between minority and majority groups has a positive effect in reducing stereotypes and prejudice. The question whether affirmative action has affected the performance of minorities is also include. The author states that there is little evidence supporting the claim that affirmative action might have a significant negative impact either on organizational performance, or in individual performance, achievement, or success of the beneficiaries. The author also goes on to talk about whether affirmative action has increased the negative stereotype of the beneficiaries? The author writes that there is evidence that affirmative action can potentially have a negative effect on the perception of the beneficiaries by the non beneficiaries, but this is a barrier that can be eliminated. Another question that the author addresses in whether affirmative action affects the self esteem/self concept of the beneficiaries. This issue is still something that needs to be researched in the future because the present research has not found any evidence that supports this claim.

The last thing I want to highlight about this book is the relation between affirmative action and stereotypes. The author targets very important issues such as are stereotypes affecting political attitudes, whether stereotypes are still prevalent, and what the future holds. The author also talks about whether the stereotypes affect political attitudes. The author writes that the answer to this question is yes. He states that stereotypes have an involuntary, automatic component that is activated regardless of the level of prejudice of a person. The author also states that stereotypes and prejudice influence the attitudes and opinions of Americans. Studies have also shown that the level of prejudice affects peoples' perception of the fairness of the affirmative action and equal employment opportunity. Most of the research suggests that peoples' prejudice and stereotypes shape their opinion about affirmative action. The author writes that people who are highly prejudiced or hold racial stereotypes tend to oppose affirmative action. Studies also have shown that stereotypes are also common among minorities. A study done by Harris in 1994 found that 66 % of minority applicants believed whites to be insensitive to other people, 65 % believed that whites looked at themselves as superior and 61 % believed that whites do not want to share power and wealth with non-whites. Harris concluded that minorities suspect the worst about white Americans, and they believe that white Americans are both insensitive and uncaring about non-whites.

The author also talks about stereotypes and the influence that the media has in it. The author also talks about non-conscious stereotypes that shape our attitudes and our behavior towards other groups. The author concludes in this book that behavior that is consciously driven by stereotypes is called prejudice. The laws such as affirmative action have made it more difficult to predict prejudice behavior, but this does not mean that the behavior has gone away; it just means that these feelings are now hidden. Even with all the laws that are available to protect against prejudice, prejudice is still a problem.

This book is very easy to read. This book is mainly based on research and if you do not like research than this book will be hard for you to read. For me personally I really like when people back up their ideas with facts, because this way I know that these are not just the author's opinions abut ideas that are based on facts and real life circumstances. As I stated in the beginning the book is right on the target. The book attracted my attention from the first chapter all the way to the end. The author makes the point very clear. It is also very clear that the author had done a lot of research in the issue, and has great knowledge on the subject. I write this because I feel that this is a very important aspect of the book. I think this is what makes this book one of the most educational and most enjoyable books I have ever read. Also another very important aspect of this book is that the author was able to portray his knowledge through a language that was understandable. I have always had a special interest on this topic, but I know that the information that I had was very limited. I really liked the style, and the way the author had written the book. I liked how he made questions, and then answered them. I was always able to follow and understand what he was talking about. This book not only broadened my knowledge on this topic, but also it affected and changed some opinions that I had about this issue. I highly recommend the book to all the people that have an interest on this topic. I rate the content and the language style as excellent. It is definitely worthwhile.

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