Affirmative action recipients show no stigma or reduced job confidence

Evidence

The very small amount of aggregate data available shows no evidence that affirmative action creates a sense of stigma or inferiority in its recipients. African Americans in firms that have affirmative action programs are at least as happy in their jobs as African Americans in firms that do not. The former demonstrate greater occupational ambition and are more likely to believe that people are helpful than the latter (Taylor, 1994; Blanchard and Crosby, 1989). Blacks who believe that affirmative action played a part in their hiring or promotion have no less confidence in their ability to do their job than do other workers (Hochschild, 1995:98-102, 290-2). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1986

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges the widely assumed ‘stigma of affirmative action’ narrative prominent in public discourse and in works like Sowell’s; directly contradicts the presumption that recipients doubt their own merit.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1986