In sum, the racial preferences that now comprise "affirmative action" were implemented on the cheap, as a hurried, cosmetic substitute for a more serious, comprehensive, and expensive attempt to improve Black opportunities. The consequence was a social policy compromised from the start, pitting white liberals against an increasingly resentful white lower-middle class, and putting Black achievements under a cloud of ambiguity.

Yet liberals today, both Black and white, fear that dismantling affirmative action will mean leaving Blacks to fend for themselves in a society still rife with anti-Black prejudice and Black alienation. If racial preferences have to go, something else must be put in place to prove that America is not turning its back on the reality of racial inequality. "Discrimination does not justify preferential treatment," writes Steele, "but I want to know that the person who stands with me against preferences understands the problem that inspired them."

Steele's answer is to make racial discrimination a criminal and not just civil offense. This is foolhardy. Instead, I offer my own three-step solution:

The first step is for liberal proponents of affirmative action to acknowledge that race-based affirmative action began as a compromise, a makeshift stand-in for more substantial social policy. Unwilling to spend massive amounts of money to improve the prospects of ghetto children, the government pressured employers and universities to lower the hurdles for Black adults.

The second step is for liberals to trade away their support for race-based, resultoriented preferences for a larger commitment by opponents of affirmative action to dramatically improve the preconditions of Black achievement. Much broader political support is available anyways for improving Black schooling, curbing inner-city violence, and re-integrating Black families than for preserving racial preferences.

The last step is for liberals to own up to the shady political, social and psychological legacy of racial preferences. All this shadiness could have been avoided, had the policymakers been willing to address Black disadvantage more squarely in the '60s. Affirmative action has salved white liberal consciences long enough. It's time to put aside this "iconographic" public policy and implement a real one.

Daniel H. Choi '94 is a first-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government.