Questions 1 through 5 pertain to federal affirmative action guidelines that are administered by The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) of the
U.S. Department of Labor.

1. Who is legally required to have a written affirmative action plan?

a. All employers with at least 25 employees

b. All federal contractors, regardless of size

c. Federal non-construction contractors with 50 or more employees and $50,000 or more in contracts

d. Federal construction contractors with 100 or more employees and $100,000 or more in federal contracts

2. Affirmative action plans must include "goals and timetables." This means that by a specific date, employers who are covered by affirmative action guidelines and
whose labor force falls below a specified percentage of women and/or minorities must

a. actually hire a certain number of minorities and women, whether they are qualified or not;

b. actually hire a certain number of minorities and women, but only if they are qualified;

c. try to hire a certain number of women and minorities, whether they are qualified or not;

d. try to hire a certain number of women and minorities, but only if they are qualified.

3. After formulating their affirmative action plans, employers are required to

a. submit them to the OFCCP for approval;

b. keep them on file in their own offices and be ready to submit them to OFCCP if they are requested;

c. have a majority of their women and minority employees approve the plan;

d. all of the above.

4. The OFCCP conducts "compliance reviews" where they investigate employers who they believe may be violating affirmative action guidelines. In any given year,
what percentage of employers covered by affirmative action guidelines undergo compliance reviews?

a. Less than 5%

b. 11%

c. 24%

d. More than 50%

5. Employers who violate affirmative action guidelines and fail to take corrective action can lose their existing federal contracts and be declared ineligible to receive
others. This is known as being "debarred." Between 1972 and 1995, how many employers have been debarred?

a. 0

b. 39

c. 197

d. More than 1000

Questions 6 through 8 are based on federal law and U.S. Supreme Court decisions as of January 1, 1996.

6. Which of the following policies may any employer legally use for hiring and promotion decisions without first getting the approval of a federal court?

a. Decide to hire or promote a black or hispanic for a particular position even though a white is clearly better qualified

b. Decide to hire or promote a woman for a particular position even though a man is clearly better qualified

c. Use race or gender as one of many factors in considering hiring and promotion

d. All of the above are legal

7. In order to attract more black and hispanic students, any college or professional school may legally:

a. offer special minority scholarships That whites could not apply for;

b. set aside or reserve a certain number of seats for black and hispanic students;

c. require the admissions office to visit all predominantly black high schools in a 50 mile radius to talk about the college;

d. None of the above are legal.

8. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, under what conditions can a lower federal court require an employer to hire and/or promote a certain number of qualified
women and minority group members?

a. The proportion of minorities and women employees is lower than the proportion of minorities and women in the United States.

b. The judge suspects that the employer has discriminated in the past.

c. Either a or b would be sufficient

d. None of the above would be sufficient.

Questions 9 through 11 are based on the results of national public opinion polls that were administered in 1995.

9. National public opinion polls of white Americans in 1995 show that:

a. more than 90% are opposed to affirmative action;

b. they have different feelings about different kinds of affirmative action policies;

c. they are surprisingly supportive of affirmative action;

d. None of the above.

10. National public opinion polls show that black Americans:

a. generally support affirmative action;

b. are neutral toward affirmative action;

c. are opposed to affirmative action.

11. National public opinion polls show that women have:

a. more positive attitudes toward affirmative action than men;

b. the same attitudes toward affirmative action as men;

c. more negative attitudes toward affirmative action than men.

12. One hears a lot of discussion these days about reverse discrimination against white males because of affirmative action. Recent income data for college graduates
who are year-round full-time workers show that white males earn:

a. about the same as white females;

b. slightly less than black males;

c. more than black females.

d. All of the above

13. Two studies of law suits by white males, which allege reverse discrimination, show that these suits:

a. are becoming almost as common as discrimination suits brought by minorities and women;

b. are less likely to be successful than suits brought by minorities and women;

c. are more likely to involve charges of race discrimination than sex discrimination.

d. All of the above

14. In considering whether or not to admit students, elite universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton:

a. consider only measures of academic skills such as grades, class rank, Scholastiac Assessment Test (SAT) scores and teacher recommendations;

b. give special preference to the children of parents who graduated from that university;

c. have never discriminated against blacks, Jews, or Asians.

d. None of the above

15. After 15 years of affirmative action, blacks received % of the medical degrees and % of the law degrees during the 1992-93 academic year.

a. 5.8 and 5.7;

b. 9.8 and 10.5;

c. 19.2 and 21.7;

d. 30.2 and 28.3.

For full explanations of the correct answers, please see "The Test of Affirmative Action Knowledge" by Fred L. Pincus in Curent World Leaders:International
Issues,Vol 39, No.2, April 1996, 94-104. Dr. Pincus can be contacted at the following address:

Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Mayland Baltimore County
5401 Wilkens Av.
Baltimore, MD 21250
(410)455-3979

Copyrite 1996 by Current World Leaders: International Issues

The correct answers to the Test of Affirmative Action Knowledge:

1. c; 2.d; 3.b; 4.a; 5. b; 6.c; 7.c; 8. d; 9.b; 10.a; 11.a; 12.c; 13.b; 14.b; 15.a.


Correct Answers

1. C. About 92,000 contractors fall into this category and must have affirmative action plans. Another 100,000 construction contractors do not need affirmative
action plans but must abide by other OFCCP regulations.

2. D. Goals only require a good faith effort; i.e., contractors do not have to achieve the goal. Quotas, which are often part of legal consent decrees are more binding.

3. B. Since contractors do not have to submit their plans to the OFCCP, the chances are that no federal official will ever see the affirmative action plans of most
federal contractors.

4. A. The OFCCP conducts about 4000 compliance reviews each year and the number is decreasing. At this rate, it would take the OFCCP over 46 years to
review each of the nearly 192,000 contractors it is responsible for..

5. B. Debarrments are rare. Since 1975, the average number of debarrments each year has been only 1.5. It takes, on the average, about three years for a company
to be debarred. If a debarred company applies for reinstatement, it takes only 8 months.

6. C. Using race as one of many factors was approved by the Supreme Court in 1978; gender was approved sometime later. In March 1996, however, a federal
appeals court said that this was illegal in a case of law school admissions in Texas. Presumably, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on this case in the next few years.

7. C. Any school can try to recruit more qualified black students by visiting black high schools. The Supreme Court has ruled against special minority scholarships. In
most situations, it is also illegal for a school to reserve a number of seats for minorities.

8. D. In order to justify a quota, the plaintiff must first prove that an employer has intentionally discriminated and has not taken sufficient steps to stop the
discrimination. There are also other legal requirements to justify quotas.

9. B. Whites are more supportive of affirmative action for women than for minorities They are more supportive of policies that don't involve quotas and that are not
intended to compensate for past discrimination.

10. A. Blacks support most affirmative action policies involving both women and minorities.

11. A. Women are more supportive than men, but black women are more supportive than white women.

12. C. White males still make significantly higher incomes than any other race/gender group.

13. B. White males do not have a good record in reverse discrimination lawsuits. In addition, there are many more discrimination suits filed by women and minorities.
Finally, most suits filed by white males allege gender discrimination rather than race discrimination.

14. B. The children of alumni, called "legacies", have a better chance to get admitted. Elite universities discriminated against Jews and Blacks early in the 20th
Century and have been accused of discriminating against Asians in the 1990s.

15. A. In spite of affirmative action, blacks and hispanics are still underrepresented in terms of law and medical degrees. White males still receive about half of these
degrees.