Affirmative action involves treating a group of people differently in order to account for the obstacles that discriminatory practices present. Affirmative action involves particular practices, policies, and laws which abide by 4 general rules: (1) a requirement that employers see in their everyday hiring and promoting practices group differences and specifically race, (2) an emphasis on hiring appropriate percentages of minorities (rather than believing that hiring individual minorities is sufficient), (3) de-emphasis or re-evaluation of the previously accepted standards of merit, and (4) an overriding concern with representation, utilization, or employment of minorities, rather than stopping harmful or bigoted acts of discrimination.

Affirmative action appeared to be at timesinsufficient. Still, there are accusations of reverse discrimination. Government-supported organizations are held to a higher standard in their implementation of affirmative action than private organizations without federal funding. Still, most large companies provide good examples of affirmative action.