affirmative action

affirmative action (usually uncountable, plural affirmative actions)

1. (uncountable) A set of policies or programs providing advantages for people of a group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against.
2. (countable) A specific policy with such a goal.
   • 1995, Gene A. Lew, Perspectives on Affirmative Action and Its Impact on Asian Pacific Americans:

     The debate on specific affirmative actions has similarly been reduced to mean quotas and preferential treatment of minorities and white women at the expense of white males.

• positive discrimination
• reverse discrimination