Wilbert Jenkins

Since the 1960s, the U.S. government has used affirmative action to correct the effects of discrimination on women and minorities—typically by adopting policies that increase female and minority representation in the workforce. In the following viewpoint, Wilbert Jenkins explains that affirmative action policies are the outcome of civil rights laws designed to procure economic justice for African Americans. These policies have boosted the number of minorities attending college and entering the professional world, leading to the growth of the minority middle class. The author maintains, however, that recent rollbacks in affirmative action threaten this progress. Affirmative action must be retained to create a healthy and diverse workforce and to foster equal opportunity, he concludes. Jenkins is a history professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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