November 13 1995

ARTICLE TOOLS

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With a growing majority of conservatives eager to see the elimination of racial and gender preferences as guides to federal affirmative-action programs, political leaders are scrambling to refine their stances on an issue that promises to play a key role in next year's presidential election. But amid liberal and conservative ideologies, will the essential goal of affirmative action (as a means to justice for all people) end up lost in the political hustle?

Affirmative action emerged in the 1960s as a result of efforts by the civil-rights movement to persuade America to honor its original contract of constitutional ideals: that "all [people] are created equal." President Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights Act of 1964 sought to prohibit racial discrimination in the present and in the future; however, it could not correct the effects of past societal inequities-particularly in the areas of housing, education, and employment. In a nation scarred by a legacy of racial injustices, affirmative action was to be the compensatory medicine that would offer equal opportunities for all individuals regardless of color, race, religion, or gender. While first addressed to the needs of African Americans, later the needs of Native Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and women were added to the roll.

Today, many look upon the process of affirmative action as being unfair. Unfair to whites and, particularly, to white men. But an urgent question for Christians is this: Should we be more concerned about fairness or justice?

Genuine justice is not based simply on fairness. In fact, a preoccupation with justice as fairness lies at the root of most problems in our society and in the world—whether among individuals, groups, or nations—and is ...