Editorial: High court ruling was affirmative

Tuesday, June 24, 2003 | 9:05 a.m.

Historians date the existence of slavery in the United States from 1619 to 1865 -- 246 years. Even after slavery ended, there was at least another hundred years of widespread racism, segregation and discrimination toward black Americans. Yet after only 30 years of a program -- affirmative action -- that came about to rectify the grievous inequities of the past, there are people who would end the program, saying it has run long enough and that it violates the constitutional rights of white Americans.

In our view, 30 years of striving toward equality is a trifling compared with centuries of slavery, hate and discrimination. We don't know when it will be time to end the program but we do know that the time has not arrived and will not arrive for decades. Tremendous strides have been made during the 30-odd years since affirmative action began. It opened the country's eyes to all discrimination. Increased opportunities for education and employment have allowed millions of blacks, women, Hispanics and other minorities a better life and our country is far better for it. But the work has just begun.

Because of that fact, we were pleased when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the principle of affirmative action in an opinion released Monday. This is a conservative court, one that could easily have spelled the end for race, ethnicity and gender being included among the factors for college admission, hiring and promotion. Instead, the court only ruled against a highly structured method used by the University of Michigan, in which 20 points toward the 150 needed for undergraduate admission were awarded strictly on the basis of minority status. The majority ruled that this system virtually guaranteed the admission of minority students, when race, in fact, must be just one of several qualifying factors in affirmative action programs. Meanwhile, the high court upheld the university's affirmative action policy at its law school, which did not use a point system.

Affirmative action will live on as the result of the decision, which means the country will continue to make progress toward the day when opportunity will be fair for everyone right from the start. Only then should affirmative action programs be retired.