Is it time to end affirmative action?

• Author: Connerly, Ward
• Position: Debate

The phrase affirmative action refers to preferences based on race that have been used in education and employment since the mid-1960s to compensate for the effects of past discrimination. It's long been a controversial idea; opponents say preferences for minorities in school admissions and hiring have the effect of discriminating against whites. This term, the Supreme Court is re-examining affirmative action in college admissions in the case Fisher v. University of Texas. In taking the case, the Court, which in the past has upheld affirmative action, may be signaling that it's ready to issue a major decision on the topic. (A Court vacancy due to the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia also raises the possibility of a 4-4 deadlock.)

YES America is dedicated to the principle of equal treatment of all its citizens by government. The Declaration of Independence proclaims that all men are created equal, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires that all Americans be treated equally "without regard to their race, color, or national origin."

Ironically, since the mid-1960s, this principle of equal treatment has been largely ignored to compensate for the historical discrimination encountered by racial minorities and women. These preferential policies are known as affirmative action.

When I was a senior in college in 1962, I had a political science professor who ended every lecture by chanting "We shall overcome!" I once asked how we would know when we had overcome. He said, when three conditions were met; when a white girl is comfortable in bringing a black boy home to meet her parents to announce that they want to get married; when the most unsuccessful white person in America is willing to trade places with even the most successful black person; and when the American people are willing to elect a black man to the highest office in the land.

Today, interracial marriage is commonplace; few would hesitate to trade places with Oprah Winfrey or Derek Jeter; and in 2008 and again in 2012, Americans elected Barack Obama, the country's first black president.

I have no doubt that the need for affirmative action is over. For every person who benefits from preferences based on race rather than merit, someone else is unfairly denied that same opportunity. As a black man, I want to know--and I especially want others to know--that my accomplishments are the result of my own efforts and not special preferences.

Until merit is the sole standard by which we...