Affirmative Action in Education

An admissions policy which, on occasion, favored a black applicant over a white with slightly better test scores, in order to ensure that the minimal amount of student diversity needed to facilitate the pedagogic mission of a professional school described above, would not, in my view, constitute an unreasonable racial discrimination, though, of course, such a policy would be discriminatory. In the example, the race of an applicant can be a kind of qualification. Just as the race of a police officer, or a candidate for judicial appointment can, under certain circumstances, also be a component of what makes a person "qualified" for a job. If women feel more comfortable being treated by female gynecologists, then health services, including public ones, will find that to properly serve their clients, taking account of the gender of an applicant for a gynecological appointment, along with other factors, is a prudent and reasonable thing to do. Confronting women with all male staffs, when some females could have been added through a slight adjustment to the other measures of qualification, would seem to be, and would in fact be, an indication of insensitivity to the clinic's clients.

--Glenn Loury, October 1996