The Equal Opportunity Act of 1995, by forbidding our Government to give racial or sexual preference or to require others to do so, cannot insure equal treatment in every sphere of course, but does surely move in the right direction. The case against racial preference has another dimension, Mr. Chairman, which my limited time permits me to outline only very briefly. Beyond its unfairness, racial preference is injurious, counterproductive. Where employees are appointed or promoted, or contracts let, on grounds not relevant to the work to be done, it is inevitable that the quality of work done will suffer. All institutions must suffer similarly when race and sex illegitimately enter the appointment or admission or promotion process.
Preference corrupts the society at large.
The corrupting spiral leads eventually to ugly racial incidents, which in turn ignite the fires of racial hatred. And for that we Americans are paying, and we will pay, a dreadful price. Individual members of minorities may benefit, of course - but the minority group is not helped, it is subverted when preference is given. Preference results inevitably in the appointment and admission of persons on grounds irrelevant to their duties or their studies. If some demon had sought to concoct a scheme aimed at undermining the credentials of minority businessmen, minority professionals and students, to stigmatize them permanently and to humiliate them publicly, there could have been no more cruel or ingenious plan devised than the preferential affirmative action that is now rampant in our country.