Randall Kennedy

That might be a distributive justice theory for why you want affirmative action, unless we reach out, unless we

reach out and give a boost to certain groups, they won't be here.

And we want a campus that looks like America.

And we won't have a campus that looks like America unless we give a special boost to, I don't know, the Latino kids, or unless we give a special boost to Black applicants.

So reparative justice, distributive justice, or...

Third, diversity.

We just want to have an interesting student body, and to have an interesting student body, we want kids from a wide array of places.

We think that that'll make for a better campus, more interesting campus.

Those are three justifications, all of which, however, are justifications for...

in a competition giving a special boost to some people based on their race.

Yeah, I can make the case for and I can make the case against.

The case for, I won't spend much time on this, like I said, there are three main justifications.

your audience should know that the justification that actually led to affirmative action

is a justification that you don't hear about in the courts because the courts have said that that justification is insufficient.

So the real justification behind affirmative action was in the late 1960s, in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Revolution, in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement,

there was a feeling that, well, okay, fine, we're not discriminating against black people anymore, but black people have been disadvantaged by the discrimination that has been put upon them, and this discrimination that was put upon them has disabled them.

And so they go into competitions, and it's unfair.

Yeah, they score less well on the standardized test, but, you know, surprise, surprise, what the heck?

They went to schools in which they got the leavings of the white folks.

You know, the white folks gave the black folks the old textbooks.