Similarly, blacks could not play major league sports, fly airplanes, lead military armies, and ride in the same coaches, live in the same hotels or even eat in the same restaurants as whites until affirmative action exposed its absurdity. I hate to see a company likes yours, that does not discriminate, try to justify the right of others to discriminate. Arguing that it is not in anyone' self interest to discriminate has the effect of renaming it. Individuals within those companies do. A theoretical argument of economic self-interest, permits those individuals to act out their biases with impunity.
Affirmative action is the organizations' and the nation's protection against that.
It is a way of monitoring outcomes, raising questions when they seem to go awry, pinpointing the cause, and fixing the problem. That is precisely the approach that organizations use to solve all their other problems. Within the broad pantheon of this thing we call industry, there is plenty of opportunity for people to exercise their influence for good or ill. Opponents of affirmative action seize upon examples of the former as justification for the latter. Perhaps the best evidence that racism still exists is the readiness of even people of goodwill to act against their own self-interest if they can be persuaded that it harms blacks.