Can Catholics Support Affirmative Action?

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Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com

I read this week that the US Supreme Court is going to be hearing arguments about affirmative action or race-based selection in colleges and universities and let me say from the outset, that as a Canadian, I don’t have a full grasp of the legal history on this, but I did think it would be worth considering some of the moral and logical principles that inform this debate.

And since this is controversial, I think it best to start where we all agree – which is that racism is wrong. I don’t think I need to explain why it’s wrong, we all just know that it is and should be able to agree with that.

We should also be able to agree that to discriminate against someone because of their skin color or “ethnic appearance” is a very explicit form of racism – and is therefore, wrong. Now if this was 10 or 15 years ago, this would have needed no explanation, but because we have become a little intellectually mystified about what racism is, I get the sense that I need to spend some more time on this point – just a bit.

It’s wrong because you can’t make judgements about people based on skin color. Skin color, and other accidental physical traits, don’t tell you anything about a person’s character or ability. But if you intend on discriminating based on skin color, it can only be because you think that skin color actually reflects a defining difference between certain people, rather than an inconsequential physical variation.

And as soon as you concede that, then you’ve allowed for the potential to compare people based on this supposed fundamental difference, and as soon as you allow for those comparisons, you’ve allowed for some to be judged superior to others – based on skin color, rather than character, ability, or suitability.

And that is the defining . feature . of racism.

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