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Affirmative action is probably fair, but in some circumstances is also ultimately detrimental to the people it is designed to assist. The rationale behind most affirmative action is sound. There exist socioeconomic differences that lead to gaps in the education and overall level of preparation of some groups of people as compared to others. At the college entry level, it makes sense to attempt to normalize for differences in the quality of preparation at the elementary and secondary levels, because typically youngsters are stuck with the public schools near their homes, and neither they nor their families have any significant control over the quality of the education provided. Notice that this is not broken down by race, but rather by quality of elementary and secondary education (which unfortunately in our country are highly correlated). The premise is that the beneficiaries of affirmative action policies have the capacity but not yet the preparation to succeed, and that they too deserve a chance.

At the level of post-college employment, affirmative action makes much less sense, since presumably educational differences will have balanced out during college. It therefore makes more sense to hire on the basis of merit alone. Indeed, in the job market affirmative action harms the people it is designed to help, because it leads directly to racism and prejudice. In the job market, there is relatively little education taking place, and no opportunity to further balance populations with differing levels of preparation. People who are less prepared will be outperformed by their peers. It is crucial that minorities (or women) NOT be hired unless they are equally prepared and are the best candidates for the job. If they are not the best candidates, and hired on the basis of their minority status, they will be outperformed and it will appear to observers that these minorities (or women) are less capable than others. This fosters prejudice and sexism in society and is ultimately harmful to the minority group as a whole. Furthermore, when a truly qualified minority person is hired, they find themselves in the position of having to prove over and over that they were not just hired because of their minority status. It would be far better to leave affirmative action out of the hiring process entirely.

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