One of the more visible (as well as controversial) approaches to addressing institutional marginalization has been the Affirmative Action Program. Affirmative action programs provide specific opportunities, positions, or advantages to people of color in an effort to create a greater degree of fairness in scholastic and business-oriented contexts.
The extent to which affirmative action has been an effective strategy remains a hotly contested issue. Some argue that affirmative action constitutes reverse racism, or that it propagates racist ideas by dividing people along ethnic and cultural lines. Others have argued that affirmative action has been effective and has helped even the scales in situations where people of color are often faced with unjust disadvantages.
What are your thoughts on the matter, does affirmative action work, is it an effective strategy for combating marginalization or does it actually causes racial/cultural divisions to become more pronounced, pushing us further away from the ultimate goal of racial and cultural equality?