Abstract

The United States has had a long history of unjustly discriminating against blacks and women, particularly by practices which have denied members of those groups equal opportunity to compete for positions in educational institutions and employment. ;In order to provide remedies for those discriminatory practices, public and private institutions have implemented or proposed programs which are based upon or mandated by Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These programs grant preferences to blacks and women who compete for positions against white males and include affirmative action policies in employment as well as those college and university admissions procedures which give advantages to black and female applicants. ;The purpose of this work is to offer a justification of preferential treatment not only in the face of the confusions surrounding its aims and scope as developed by American political and judicial institutions, but also considering the serious philosophical problems and objections which have arisen over the past twenty five years. ;It is the thesis of this work that restitution is the proper justification for the preferential treatment of blacks and women, and that preferential treatment is not only consistent with the principle of equal opportunity but is also demanded by considerations of justice. Furthermore, preferential treatment is properly group-based and, therefore, does not depend either upon the individual black and female recipients having suffered the effects of unjust discrimination or upon a determination that the non-preferred white male competitors have unjustly discriminated. An analysis of groups, group membership and group action is offered which sanctions group-based restitutive preferential treatment