Affirmative action

Discuss this oxymoron in the comments below.

4.7/10 - (28 votes)

25 Responses to "Affirmative action"

Jade says:

March 23, 2010 at 8:16 am

My understanding of an oxymoron is: a phrase that is viable, but when taken separately, the words are contradictory. How are the words “affirmative” and “action” contradictory? Whom ever put this on the list probably disagrees with Affirmative action, but that doesn't make it an oxymoron.
Mister Lutz says:

July 27, 2010 at 5:19 pm

Kinda like military intelligence….those two words don't contradict each other either but for the most part, is the military really intelligent?
Mister Lutz says:

July 27, 2010 at 5:21 pm

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the fact that affirmative action really hasn't been all that successful but neither has the post office.
Mister Lutz says:

July 27, 2010 at 10:19 pm

Kinda like military intelligence….those two words don't contradict each other either but for the most part, is the military really intelligent?
Mister Lutz says:

July 27, 2010 at 10:21 pm

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the fact that affirmative action really hasn't been all that successful but neither has the post office.
Selektwizely says:

June 13, 2011 at 6:53 pm

Affirmative action started 400 years ago, when many rights and privileges were reserved exclusively for white people – who now oppose modern affirmative action designed to redress that imbalance. (There’s yer oxymoron…)
Linda says:

December 20, 2011 at 4:07 pm

I agree with Jade. I do not see how the words themselves contradict each other. Since “Affirmative” means positive or favorable and “action” means doing something, doesn’t that connote doing something positive? So, the word “affirmative” describes the tone of the “action”, but does not contradict the action.
Gsdg says:

January 15, 2012 at 12:29 am

people, people, its called a *joke
Eric80 says:

January 22, 2012 at 9:26 am

I believe what selekteizely has highlighted is irony.
spikeman says:

May 26, 2012 at 8:55 pm

I get it, let’s give someone an unfair advantage based on skin color
TonyTheToe says:

September 18, 2012 at 6:54 am

Gallagher
KM says:

November 1, 2012 at 10:26 pm

Agreeing with Jade. Disagreement with the political policy does not make the turn of phrase an oxymoron.
Gregory Bennett says:

May 26, 2013 at 6:16 pm

Um, if you’re referring to slavery, it wouldn’t have been possible without African tribes, who sold other African tribes to Europeans. Why on Earth should we redress all blacks today when some may be descended from slave traders?

Slavery continues today, not that you’ll hear much about it on MSNBC. Seems to me blacks’ problems today are largely self-inflicted: abortion, chauvinism (successful people are “too white”), crime, and drugs.
Charles Orgbon says:

June 12, 2013 at 11:49 am

Spikeman, we live in a world where White people safe given an advantage. People can become offended by affirmative action because it contradicts what we were all taught: if you do good, and do what right, you’ll be rewarded. There are a lot of other variables to count for, and affirmative action tries to create an equal playing field by standardizing the interview process, sharing job opening to a diverse community, and choosing a qualified person.
Josh says:

June 21, 2013 at 5:35 pm

Affirmative action is a load of B.S. If it was possible to be racists towards Caucasian people, this would be it, but seemingly only white people are racist. How many Black scholarship programs are there that only African Americans are eligible for? If there where white only scholarships, everybody would be in an uproar. White people are the minorities now.
Semaj S. says:

October 11, 2013 at 10:58 pm

Are you black or African American? The answer to this question is important because how else could you speak on the black experience or problem second hand? Even if you were black you couldn’t speak for blacks as a whole, because America being the melting pot that it is there is just to much diversity to consider before making such a ignorant comment.
Gregory Bennett says:

October 12, 2013 at 10:20 am

LOL. Which is it, melting pot or diversity?
Mmmmmm says:

November 24, 2013 at 6:49 am

Affirmitive Action is about giving minorities a chance. Like a if your white trying to get into a chinese and indian dominated medical doctor program. Everyone is so obssessed with black people.
Tracey says:

May 11, 2014 at 9:45 pm

Listen carefully, it’s folks like yourself who put shame and disgust to a post secondary degree, so lets just say that you are a complete moron. It is very difficult to answer the question to why some people turn against their own in times of oppression, ridicule , and pure totalitarian behaviour.
What is obvious is that as human beings we maintain life through our ability to survive and be resilient. Not all human beings are good, you should know. We have some wicked cruel minded people out their that would sell their children for less than nothing. Should all blacks claim to that all white are descendants from slave masters so they should not have privileges that black have. How stupid would that be. People don’t change, they just set aside their nasty habits for a while and if we a real all ready to set aside or prejudice nature, the world would be a nicer place. You will realize self inflicting when you wake up one day and realize that drugs abuse crime abortion these life happenings does not discriminate against race or ethnicity. Misfortune is largely bad karma ( the bible says anything we do bad against our neighbours will fall not on us but on our children and people like you know a lot about bad karma
Gregory Bennett says:

May 13, 2014 at 9:06 pm

Uh, you lie. Karma is a lie, and you lie about the Bible. Typical.

As I said, karma is a lie, not that you understand it all that well. Bad choices have consequences, although sometimes folks are enabled by others.

What everyone needs is a savior. Stop blaming others, and accept that unless your sin is dealt with, and the price is paid, you cannot spend eternity with a holy God.

When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
~ Ezekiel 18:19-20

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
~ Matthew 7:1-5

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
~ I John 1:5-10
Kevin Moon says:

August 8, 2016 at 8:42 pm

The answer to your question is NONE…even HBCU’s are not solely Black anymore…here’s a great oxymoron for you…Reverse Racism…if that ain’t an oxymoron then I don’t know what one is. Racism implies power to affect how a group of people lives or the quality of that life based on prejudice. Everybody can be prejudiced but oppressed people cannot be racist.
PunditSoup says:

March 15, 2017 at 4:48 pm

Great oxymoron – reverse racism. By nature racism is an attitude (often leading to action) of a negative or inferior view of another race. So reverse racism would be racism against a race that is the reverse or opposite of the one against which one holds negative prejudice – an impossibility. But your statement that “oppressed people cannot be racist” is nonsense – literally irrational and illogical. Racism is an attitude or belief which often leads to actions that reflect that belief. Oppression is irrelevant to the definition. Example: Asians who have been wrongly jailed in Somalia because they opposed the warlord genocide, are an oppressed people group. But the hatred of some of the Asians toward the warlords because the warlords are black is still racist.
Kevin Moon says:

May 27, 2017 at 1:25 pm

Wrong….you’re confusing racism with prejudice/bias. Racism is the system of oppression based on bias and predjudice which means the oppressors are in a position of power to affect how a group of people live based on that bias and predjudice. Reverse racism is an oxymoron. Oppressed people can be predjudice and biased but racism implies power to manifest bias and predjudice through policy, laws, and other societal mediums.
shayneo says:

March 7, 2019 at 4:07 am

Theres nothing about this term that is oxymoronic. It should be deleted from the list because its going to confuse folks who are learning English to see an example of an Oxymoron that is not actually a contradiction in terms.
Johann Crous says:

September 23, 2019 at 8:59 am

Really? How is 55 million black people in South Africa the minority?
JC

Comments are closed.