Quote Originally Posted by Kyle Boatright View Post
Floats, a couple of other times in this thread, you've disagreed with people about diversity vs affirmative action vs a meritocracy. But you haven't offered your definition of diversity, or why you think it it is better or just different than affirmative action or a meritocracy which is blind to race/gender/whatever. Can you expand your ideas so I (we?) understand where you're coming from?
The key difference in practical application:

Affirmative Action policy places formal and legal obligations on a company or organization to hire recognized minorities and women that have been historically discriminated against.

Diversity policy is a voluntary informal action that a company or organization adopts to give consideration to those same groups.


Diversity is an undertaking to understand and accept the differences between groups of people by placing a positive value on those differences. It's about appreciating what makes them different in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc, etc. As a workplace or organizational strategy, it entrenches a conscious EFFORT to recruit diverse qualified employees.

Affirmative Action is a formal, legally entrenched policy that REQUIRES a company or organization to FAVOUR or PREFER those same minority groups who have historically been subjected to discrimination with respect to education and employment.

Companies, organizations, government, NGO's can sign on to both, one or the other or none.