Affirmative action seeks to eliminate the ageold, unearned benefits and privilege enjoyed by white males. Taking race and gender into consideration temporarily for remedial purposes is only fair, given the enormous burden that centuries of subjugation and exclusion have placed on minorities and women. To argue against affirmative action is to argue, in essence, for retention of white male privilege and for continuing the effects of discrimination against racial minorities and women. No, that wouldn't be right, and the ACLU would never support such a policy. The way affirmative action works is that qualified minorities and women may be given preference when jobs become available.
Preferential treatment is nothing new in the United States.
For example, universities often give admission preference to the children of alumni, or to outofstate students. In the 1940s and '50s, the G.I. Bill of Rights gave World War II veterans the vast majority of whom were white men various educational and economic benefits, including preference when they applied for certain available civil service jobs. These dispensations, which acknowledged the disadvantages many veterans had endured, applied to all veterans regardless of whether they had enlisted or been drafted, seen combat or not or been economically disadvantaged by their military service or not. Veterans of various wars fought by the U.S. still receive special benefits. The national consensus has been that, for a certain period of time, veterans should receive assistance in reconstructing their civilian lives so that they can compete on an equal basis with people who have not served.