For the past two thousand years, whites have been oppressing those of other races. Them taking a few thousand jobs or places in college that might otherwise be occupied by whites is the least they could ask for. The origins of this country created a VERY biased social system; before the late 19th century, whites held probably more than 99% of the nation's wealth. Blacks came here with nothing. They were forced to leave their possessions and homes to come here. Now that they're citizens, it is obvious that they won't instantly catch up economically to the whites. Affirmative Action helps them with this. Consider this: if tomorrow, a group of ruffians abducts you, takes you to an island in the middle of the ocean, and then sets you free. The natives there have plenty of laborers there that are stronger than you and know the island better. You obviously are going to starve to death or rely on the charity of the islanders. Now, there isn't just one minority. There are millions of persons that qualify are minorities within the United States. Charity can only help so many of them. Yes - they will become talented and be able to obtain jobs. In this manner, my example is bad. But obtaining higher education is much harder for families without much money. And without a higher education degree, it is hard to make a lot of money. Wow I've managed to confuse myself. What I think I'm getting at is that whites prevented many minorities from being economically equal to us. Now we need to apologize and fix what we did wrong. It isn't reverse racism because if the white person or other person that doesn't fall into the minority group for affirmative action is truly deserving a good job or entrance into a good college, (s)he'll get it. Also, one must consider the environment. Having a diverse group of peers is always much more interesting than having similar ones. I'd rather be a minority in a class than part of an overwhelming majority.

This is a complicated problem with good arguments on both sides. (Basically, any time you have a divisive issue like this which continues year after year, you can be pretty sure that there is some truth in both positions, but that neither side will acknowledge the other's validity.) As Elitheeli says well, the past abuses of minorities by white males has created conditions which make it difficult for minorities to gain ground, and affirmative action helps to address that. There is no question that it has been effective and helpful in many cases. The other side of the coin is that it also means a white person will lose out on an opportunity which they are qualified for, because a lower standard allowed a minority entrance. So it is reverse discrimination. This is typical of all the hard-to-solve problems: it *is* reverse discrimination, and it is *simultaneously* an effective way to even the scales of history a bit. Finding a workable balance between these values requires that we abandon our self-righteous posturing and finger-pointing from each side of the argument and work on producing the most good with the least harm.