AFFIRMATIVE ACTION….I don’t have a lot of comment on the two affirmative action cases handed down today other than to say that, taken together, they seem about right to me. I’m happy that affirmative action as a concept was ruled constitutional, but I’m also happy to accept the idea that it needs to be moderate in scope ? although the ruling seems to insist on a somewhat more stringent scope than I’d like. What’s more, as Tapped points out, Sandra Day O’Connor’s suggestion that affirmative action shouldn’t be viewed as a program that lasts forever is also reasonable.
I support moderate affirmative action as a simple matter of equity, but I also believe that our real goal should be to make it unnecessary. The sooner we do this the better, but until then we need to keep it around as a necessary tool in the fight to overcome a centuries-old legacy of racism that continues to haunt us today.
