Affirmative action policies were first implemented in 1965 as part of a federal plan to counter the effects of employment discrimination on minorities and women. These policies typically required employers to actively recruit minority workers or to participate in programs that enlarged the pool of qualified minority job applicants. By the 1990s, however, many people had begun to question the effectiveness and the necessity of such programs. In November 1996, for example, California voters agreed to adopt Proposition 209, a ballot measure that ended affirmative action programs in government hiring and public education in California.

Critics argue that affirmative action has caused many employers to lower their qualifications simply to ensure that minorities are hired. Furthermore, they maintain, affirmative action programs create reverse discrimination by denying jobs and promotions to whites with equal or better capabilities than minorities. According to Steven Yates, author of Civil Wrongs...