While arguing against the Civil Rights Act of 1875, Associate Justice Joseph Bradley of the U.S. Supreme Court wrote that granting equal access to black people in hotels and restaurants based on their race "would be running the slavery argument into the ground."

That sounds similar to the arguments I have heard about affirmative action. As much as Americans today would like to think that racism no longer exists, looking back at the older rationalizations against civil rights shows today's debate about affirmative action to be more of the same stuff.

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