Charles T. Canady

Prior to the mid-1960s, the civil rights movement fought against racial discrimination by pushing for laws that emphasized color-blind principles of justice, contends Charles T. Canady in the following viewpoint. But by the 1970s, so- called affirmative action programs began using racial preferences in an attempt to ensure the proportional representation of minorities in the workforce. These programs are discriminatory because they encourage employers to hire people on the basis of race—with whites and members of other nonpreferred groups frequently being denied job opportunities. Furthermore, Canady charges, affirmative action preferences lead both whites and nonwhites to doubt minority competence. Such preferences undermine the original goals of the civil rights movement, Canady maintains. Canady is a Republican representative from Florida.

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1. What were Jim Crow laws...