“Affirmative action” was a perfectly good term which has been twisted out of its original meaning. The premise was that when an institution with a long history of denying some opportunity by invidious discrimination is compelled to stop, it is not enough just to stop. The institution should take “affirmative action” to open the opportunity to the previously excluded group. For instance, an employer might be expected to advertise job openings in the media of the excluded group, rather than just post them in the workplace (where none of the excluded group will see them).

When such measures proved insufficient to achieve equal achievements, “affirmative action” metastasized into the present regime of race-quotas.

The misuse of “affirmative action” is Orwellian, but the term itself is not.