Anti-discrimination are laws. As a manager, it is illegal to consider actions toward employees based on the “protected classes.” Legally, it is OK to discriminate those who are not in one of those classes. But they have expanded to cover pretty much everything by now. Affirmative action gives preferential treatments to minority groups that were historically disadvantaged.
Anti-discrimination says you must treat everyone equally. Yet Affirmative Action says you must treat some groups differently. Managers should be “color blind” but, at the same time, take action to protect certain minority groups. The only way to be in compliance to both is to be mindful of minority classes but never say it out loud or put it in writing. This is the “whisper effect” and everyone hates it.
Or, we can setup coaching classes for those minority classes, but be completely color-blind in all decisions. I knew of a company that assigned a senior executive to the mentor of all new woman managers. They formed bonding rapports that last for decades. That program benefited the new manager tremendously and also helped the company to achieve its affirmative action goals.
Of course, some advocate to demolish affirmative action all together. For the majority, it is a form of reverse discrimination. For the minority, it does not give them the respect or independence. The fact of the world is there will always be disadvantaged groups and everyone of us in in one or more of them all the time. Respect and independence must be earned, with or without laws.