Nancy Stein et al.

The following viewpoint was prepared by a team coordinated by Nancy Stein, editor of the progressive journal CrossRoads and a member of the editorial board of Social Justice, a quarterly educational journal. The team consisted of Elizabeth Martinez, a Cross- Roads editor; Cathy Tashiro, a doctoral student in sociology; and Phil Hutchings, program director of the Center for Ethics and Economic Policy in Berkeley, California. The authors assert that affirmative action is needed to ensure equal opportunity for people of color and women. Affirmative action does not impose quotas, they argue, nor does it require employers to hire unqualified minority applicants or to discriminate against white men. In the authors’ opinion, many white workers blame affirmative action policies for a lack of jobs that is actually caused by a poor economic...