Should the government require schools and businesses to take 'affirmative action' in admitting students and hiring employees who are members of racial minorities?

Pro: Affirmative action is not atonement for the injustices of the past. Giving some preference to prospective students and employees who are members of racial minorities helps to correct the present inequities that result from past policies of racial discrimination. Unless the government breaks down some of the barriers that exist for victims of racial discrimination, many citizens will continue to be excluded from positions of higher economic, social and political influence. Affirmative action, by giving some disadvantaged individuals opportunities for education and employment, improves the average socio-economic status of those racial minorities who have been oppressed for generations by government and society.

Con: When they are unequal in competence, citizens ought not to have equal access to positions of responsibility. Sports, businesses and the professions, to name a few of society's institutions, all desire the best individuals in their ranks. Discriminating among people only on the basis of ability to do a job is both rational and unprejudiced.

Con: Once discrimination on the basis of race is outlawed, and all citizens have equal access to opportunities for education and training, there is no need for 'affirmative action' programs.

Con: Society is better served if those who have suffered from past racial discrimination are given extraordinary opportunities for education and training to make up for their deficits, rather than jobs for which they are not qualified. Then, if no discrimination on the basis of race is practiced, citizens will have a fair chance of winning positions on the basis of merit, and many ill-trained people will be justly prevented from occupying positions of responsibility. Society is better served when people are brought up to standards than when standards are brought down to people.

Con: Affirmative action programs create resentments among those who lose job opportunities to less qualified people. Such programs can stigmatize those who benefit from them; thus, the programs can foster another form of prejudice—one that considers the beneficiaries of affirmative action programs to be unable to rise to positions of responsibility on their own.