Do you support Race base AA

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

Diversity itself is a reason to support race-based AA.

If a university's admission policies will result in virtually none of several minority groups being admitted, than the entire student body will suffer from not being exposed to opinions and backgrounds different from their own.  Part of the college experience is not only learning in class, but learning from your fellow students, and this is best done when the other students have something to teach you.  Excluding minorities from this environment hurts the white students as well.

If an appropiate number of minority students will be admitted without the use of AA, then it is obviously unnecessary.  I don't think there should be strict quotas, but a sort of "critical mass."

Also, I'm less inclined to support race-based AA in jobs where a specific skill set is need to competently perform.  These comments really only apply to education.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

Agreed, NickG, but there are many other factors to consider besides just race when it comes to diversity.

It's a shame that colleges can't have a face-to-face interview with each and every applicant...I feel that's the only way to truly get a good grasp of someone's character, and of what they'll bring to the organization. People can't be judged fairly by anything other than honest in-person interaction.

Of course, and we should have class-based affirmative action as well.  In fact, I would support exclusively class-based AA if it was guaranteed to achieve a "critical mass" of diversity on other axes, like race.  But I'm not convinced that it is.