California's passage of Proposition 209 has inspired both anger and rejoicing among detractors and supporters. The proposition, which effectively ends governmentally sponsored affirmative action programs in the state of California, was passed by a 54 to 46 percent margin. As expected, the ACLU and other organizations have filed suit to block passage of the law, deeming it unconstitutional. However, the proposal is a step in the right direction for creating a society where race no longer is a negative factor, but a society where race and difference is celebrated in harmony.

As a society, we must begin to not look at individuals by their race, but by their individual talents and their qualities. Affirmative action does the exact opposite of this: it stratifies minorities and whites into distinct groups. When race becomes a priority in hiring or admissions, it simply creates backlash among those disaffected by those negatively affected by the affirmative action programs. This simply exaberates the problems of racial tension in society.

But the logic used by proponents of affirmative action is not strong enough to justify continuation of this program. There have been various arguments used by the supporters of affirmative action to attempt to de-rail attempts at reduction or abolition of the attempts.

One main position is that by eliminating affirmative action programs, the 14th Amendment will be violated, for by scrapping the affirmative action programs, it will end protection for minorities against discrimination. However, this logic is flawed. Affirmative action has nothing to do with protecting minorities from discrimination: the basis behind the program in the first place was that because of discrimination, minorities needed "affirmative action" to help them fairly compete against their white counterparts who had previously benefited from segregation. Current law as enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Civil Rights Bureaus of individual states will prevent any acts of discrimination against individuals. In fact, by scrapping affirmative action, it is more likely that real cases of discrimination will be brought to the forefront, instead of having the investigators at the EEOC and their state-government counterparts examining records for supposed discrimination. By eliminating the "quota" aspect of affirmative action program enforcement among the government, such blatant cases of discrimination as occurred recently with Texaco and a franchise of Avis Rent-a-Car will be brought forth and dealt with more quickly and examined more thoroughly.

However, the basis that existed in the 1960s when Lyndon Johnson first thought of the program does not by and large exist today. Widespread discrimination that existed in the 1950s and 1960s, during the civil rights struggle, no longer exists. Furthermore, current anti-discrimination laws prevent any discrimination, whether it be against one person or a group as a whole. Society has come to reject discrimination, as seen in the mass outcry over such instances as the Texaco case, the Avis case, and the Denny's discrimination suit in 1995.

There are those who have argued that due to discrimination and slavery perpretrated by American colonists and nationals up through the 1960s, that affirmative action is necessary to make up for discrimination against these people. However, every American citizen, regardless of race, color, or creed has an equal opportunity to make his or her life better and to succeed in American life. The cards one is dealt in the beginning may be good or they may be bad, but no one is denied the opportunity to make their life better, unlike Americans who lived earlier this century. This fundamental truth is the real basis for the abolition of affirmative action. Since equality of opportunity does exist in the United States, and race is not a factor in determining equality of opportunity, it makes no sense to base hiring or admissions on race. There is no point in continuing a program that is anti-thetical to the goals that you are trying to accomplish.

The time has come for Americans to stop judging each other by the color of their skin or their gender. It is time to truly begin to judge people, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "by the content of their character." By doing so, we can begin to end the racial tension that continues to plague America by ending race as a factor of whether a person is a qualified individual for a position.

While it may be impossible to eradicate discrimination from American society, we can end a good deal of it by eliminating affirmative action programs and the backlash they cause.