Affirmative Action Advocacy
About the Project
"The premise of the Affirmative Action concept... is that systematic discrimination... has existed, and unless positive action is taken, a benign neutrality today will only preserve yesterday's conditions and project them into the future."
- Director of the U.S. Office of Civil Rights in 1973
Although there has been some notable progress in the three decades since that statement was made - particularly for white women working in professions and trades - the data clearly shows how heartbreakingly far we remain from fulfilling our common dream of equality and embodying our shared pledge of "one nation... with liberty and justice for all."
Firelight Media received a grant from the National Fulfilling the Dream Fund to create a digital Affirmative Action Advocacy toolkit that addresses the history and ongoing debates surrounding affirmative action. This toolkit includes Arise: The Battle Over Affirmative Action, an educational DVD as well as accompanying education and outreach materials.
Links to view the four sections of the Arise: The Battle Over Affirmative Action DVD are included below. For each section, a corresponding fact sheet and transcript of the film are available to download.