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The Runner and the Track
(Insert images)The things that most people think they know about affirmative are not right. Thethings that are right about affirmative action are things most people don’t know. Part of the problem comes from the metaphors that we use to talk about affirmative action.Access to the American dream is often framed as a fair race that is own by the fastestrunners. In an ideal race, all runners start at the same point, and victory goes to the bestrunner. People say that affirmative action is wrong because it gives some runners anadvantage over others.Both the opponents and the defenders of affirmative action tend to agree that gettinga head start represents a special preference. They disagree, however, about whether suchpreferences are justified. For opponents, the head start is unfair, inefficient, divisive andcounterproductive. In their view, the people who win a race with the help of affirmativeaction are tainted, because they were given an unfair advantage. No matter how wellthey’ve run the race, their accomplishments cannot be credited or trusted. Theseopponents of affirmative action think that the other runners have every reason to beresentful, because they were forced to run in a rigged race. The defenders of affirmativeaction worry about that resentment and other costs associated with staging the race thisway, but they argue that the benefits to society of a diverse set of winners offsets thesecosts. Although the opponents of affirmative action and its defenders come to differentconclusions, what they share is actually more telling. They see the problem through adistorted lens by thinking in terms of damaged runners unable to compete on their own.As long as affirmative action is framed in the terms of damaged runners, there is little
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