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The United States adopted affirmative action over 50 years ago to help promote equal opportunity and diversity. But support for it has been divided, with critics saying it unfairly favors one population over another. Read the full description.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
Late last year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy set a goal for elite Parisian universities to accept 30 percent of their students from lower income levels or poorer suburbs of Paris. The universities refused, but after strong pressure from the French government, have agreed to admit more students from the suburbs. Other countries have wrestled with affimative action like policies as well. France ultimately decided that affirmative action, or “positive discrimination,” didn’t fit with the country’s republican ideology of liberty, equality and brotherhood for all. In recent months, however, the topic of affirmative action in France has crept back on the scene.
