Affirmative action compensates for privilege

Affirmative action policies help give minorities the necessary boost to bring them to the starting line where privileged people already stand. In 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, allowing African Americans to exercise their right to vote. As he stated: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race, and then say, ‘You are free to compete…’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.” This case of affirmative action gave a leadway for African-Americans to vote because their race made it impossible until the act.^[1]

[P1] Affirmative action is a means to compensate for America’s history of racism. [P2] Affirmative action places minorities on an equal playing field.