Lino A. Graglia

About the author: Lino A. Graglia is the A. Dalton Cross professor of law at the University of Texas, Austin.

By granting special treatment to certain groups on the basis of race, affirmative action highlights racial distinctions and exacerbates racial conflict. Affirmative action programs create an atmosphere in which blacks are taught to blame their shortcomings on whites and encouraged to believe that they are "too different" to adhere to the standards of the rest of society. Furthermore, affirmative action excuses blacks from the obligations and requirements expected of others. Racial preferences are nothing more than governmentsanctioned discrimination and should be eliminated.

Insofar as it is controversial, affirmative action is a euphemism for discrimination: the granting of preference to some individuals and therefore the disfavoring of others on the basis of their race. Suggested definitions that fail...