A Utilitarian Analysis of Affirmative Action

Utilitarianism is a moral theory popularized by John Stuart Mill that is centered around the idea of the greatest happiness principle and its relation to utility. According to the greatest happiness principle, the right action is the action which produces the most utility, or pleasure and absence of pain, for all who are affected by the action. Everyone enters into the calculation on equal footing, so that no one individual's happiness is placed above anyone else's. The "pleasures" taken into account under the greatest happiness principle differ in quantity and quality, with pleasures of the intellect regarded as being more valuable than those of sensation.

Taking these ideas into account, I will try to analyze the morality of affirmative action from a utilitarian perspective. 

Argument for Affirmative Action:

Minorities benefit from affirmative action in the sense that by giving them the opportunity to a higher education, the university is adding pleasure for them and removing their pain:

• pleasure of higher education
• intellectual stimulation
• college education
• exposed to a plethora of fields and career opportunities
• cultural stimulation
• interacting with students from various aspects of life
• higher pleasures
• duration of the pleasure
• life
• removal of pain
• the pain of ignorance
• not realizing one's full potential
• possible pain of financial instability
• no college education = less job opportunities
• sense of accomplishment
• create utility for future generations
• children more likely to attend university
• starts a cycle - children will attend college, their children will attend college, so on...

Although those in the majority group are expected to suffer some "pain" (in terms of the greatest happiness principle) as a result of affirmative action, the pains they suffer pale in comparison to the higher pleasures experienced by the individuals in the minority group:

• discomfort from being exposed to minority culture - lower pain than the pleasure minorities receive of education
• discomfort = sensational pain
• education = intellectual pleasure
• duration of the pain
• temporary
• not necessarily all in the majority are affected

Affirmative action can be evaluated in terms of the sanctions that push us to adopt the greatest happiness principle. External sanctions motivate our sense of duty to promote affirmative action, which is motivated by sympathy and enacted through education. This leads to our duty to the minorities being internalized, which then leads us to broaden the scope of the duty, or to more heavily promote diversity:

• external sanctions: pressure, destruction of reputation for not having diversity, praise for having diversity
• promote affirmative action through education
• duty internalized = increase promotion of diversity 
• social feeling for humankind strengthened

Argument Against Affirmative Action:

By pure definition, if affirmative action is rejected by the majority, then it is violating the greatest happiness principle because it is not fostering the greatest amount of utility for the greatest amount of people. The majority constitutes the greatest number of people, so if pleasure is being taken away from the majority in favor of the minority, the action is not moral under utilitarianism. However, this does not take into account the quality of the pleasures.

A possible drawback to affirmative action is the addition of pain for those in the minority:

• sense of isolation
• could feel alienated in their own environment
• ex: black students speaking up on Twitter with "#BBUM", detailing the struggles of being black at the University of Michigan and trying to create a sense of community and belonging in a "hostile" environment
• http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/on-twitter-being-black-at-the-university-of-michigan/

Conclusion:

Affirmative action is supported under utilitarianism. Ultimately, the advantages that minority groups reap from affirmative action outweigh the possible disadvantages suffered both by the majority and minorities because the value, duration, and amount of the benefits exceeds those of the drawbacks.