Defenders of affirmative action typically insist that race is only “a factor” in hiring/admission decisions, as, for example, Terry Neal of the Washington Post did recently (discussed in this post) when he defined affirmative action as
the effort to find and consider qualified minority and women applicants for jobs. For instance, the NFL has a policy that a minority must be interviewed for each open head coaching position. Not hired, but interviewed.
Terry Neal, meet Gloucester County (NJ) College:
Gloucester County College adopted an affirmative action plan to increase the number of minority teachers in June. The county chapter of the NAACP applied pressure on the college, telling the board it was prepared to lobby individuals and organizations asking them to withhold funding commitments unless a plan was enacted to hire more minority teachers. The college currently employs only two black full-time faculty members.
I’m sure what the NAACP really meant was a plan to find and interview minority candidates, not necessarily hire them. Didn’t it?
