Research has shown, however, that affirmative action "has been an important policy for improving the economic status of people of color and White women" (Konrad, 429). Because of the advances recently made by minorities, some argue that affirmative action is no longer needed.
Quinn (2002) disagrees with these individuals, citing that "affirmative action is still needed, there is still racism. It is only more subtle because opponents of affirmative action have been successful at portraying those thoughts." The truth is that "for decades black unemployment has been about twice that of white unemployment" (Feagin, 258). Without affirmative action policies, civil rights laws would be the political means of promoting equality. However, civil rights laws are hard to prove, usually small in number, and do not scare employers into enforcing the laws. With only civil rights laws and no affirmative action programs, the status quo would be frozen. Freezing the status quo will make equality stand still, not get better (Quinn, 2002). There has been research that "suggests that the gains that have been made by affirmative action would be reversed if affirmative action was dismantled" (Konrad, 443). For example, in California when an affirmative action policy was dropped at a law school, admission of African Americans to the law school plummeted (Konrad, 443). That clearly shows the need for affirmative action programs.
According to Peeks (2002), affirmative action helps the middle class the most. Quinn (2002) agrees, stating that "affirmative action only helps qualified people, most of who are in the middle class." Quinn (2002) also believes that there tends to be a large percentage of minorities in the lower middle class, so affirmative action does greatly aid minority groups. When looking at hiring employees who are equally qualified, Quinn (2002) argues that cultural experience is often taken into account to try to promote as much diversity in people and equality for people as possible, which is the goal of affirmative action.