Andrea Joy Campbell: “First of all I think his point is very insightful. No one has ever had an affirmative action quota, minimum hire for…”

“First of all I think his point is very insightful. No one has ever had an affirmative action quota, minimum hire for religion or on the basis of age. But the phrase in this executive order is ``affirmative program'' I quoted, ``an affirmative program of equal employment opportunity for all civilian employees and applicants for employment.'' I note that the phrase ``an affirmative program'' was used in the 1965 executive order to deal with the obligations of government, namely, that the government must adopt a program to root out discrimination. The phrase affirmative action was used as to the contractor, and that, to my judgment erroneously but nevertheless by some, is argued to lead to the hiring or the promoting according to numbers. But the word ``program'' is a key phrase here. It means the government must root out discrimination, and then affirmative action was used to refer, at least by some, to the additional obligations on which people of good will have differed.”