However, affirmative action does reveal a rift in American political culture. Equality has always been an endemic American value, touted in the Constitution and branded as a key feature of American life. Yet diversity has recently become a keyword in American political culture. Preserving both equality and diversity has become the most current political challenge in the United States and this challenge is encapsulated in the debate over affirmative action.

Affirmative action suggests that equality has not always been a reality for Americans even if the word is embedded in the Constitution. Historical fact supports the point-of-view that non-white Americans have not experienced equality in the ways that privileged people do. Even though discrimination not as tolerated in American society as it was in the 1950s, some residual effects of racism remain in American culture. Enough residual effects of racism exist to prompt some voters to believe that affirmative action...
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