So we don't worry about their schools. Or their housing. Or their jobs. President Clinton's theory is that addressing this problem of difference will be as important a foundation of America's strength in the next century as will be trade policy, a balanced budget, K-12 education excellence, and so forth. America has struggled to find a middle course between radical individual autonomy and overbearing claims of community.
Comparative conditions are, however, a barometer of justice.
Edley is also right that color-conscious laws make sense in a few cases. But color-blind law is necessary because we don't trust the state with the power to discriminate. See the rest of D'Souza's response. We still do. Generalissimos of the civil-rights rollback sound the death knell of affirmative action so often that they sound like Johnny One Note.