Does affirmative action do too little to rectify racial injustice, or do too much and create racial resentment? Ken shows doubts about affirmative action: if the law doesn’t discriminate against anyone on the basis of race, why should universities? John defends that affirmative action merely sought to extend educational opportunities to those that conventionally could not access them. Ken pushes back that affirmative action has evolved to not only level the playing field, but tip it to the advantage of certain groups. John and Ken digress to a discussion of how implicit bias affects questions of merit. Economist Glenn Loury enters the discussion to help make sense of these questions.

Loury first explains how affirmative action lends itself to be studied by the methods of economics. He goes on justify affirmative action on the grounds that the legitimacy of universities would be threatened without sufficient diversity. Loury provides an example of how the Supreme Court’s legitimacy would have been threatened without at least one black Justice, explaining the appointment of Justice Thomas to replace Justice Marshall. Ken suggests that minorities in the police force may be an even more striking case of the importance of affirmative action.

短暂的休息之后，Loury对平权行动提出了批评，声称它既傲慢又具有讽刺意味。约翰描述了他在加州大学洛杉矶分校实施平权行动的经历，这一工具只是用来确保弱势群体有平等的机会进入。Loury同意这种“微弱的”平权行动是计划的一部分，但还远远不够产生政治正确的结果。Ken插嘴说，他想知道为什么会有这样的精英大学存在。当Loury平衡精英主义的生产力和共同的民主事业时，Ken提出了为什么黑人和其他少数族裔不能被允许进入这个精英机构的堡垒。约翰指出，作为平权法案的一种正当手段，黑人和印第安人受到了特别有害的对待。

一位来电者认为，持续存在的种族主义和评估学术成就的有偏见的体系为他提供了平权行动的理由。Loury并没有被说服，但他承认，全面的平权法案在今天的大学中确实发挥了作用。另一位来电者表示，他担心招聘委员会很可能会选择符合自己性格和外貌的候选人。洛里对这种担世界杯赛程2022赛程表欧洲区忧表示同情。肯问道，平权法案可能以相对较小的方式帮助和伤害了如此少的人，为什么它会被如此广泛地讨论。约翰插话说，亚裔可能是平权法案的最大受害者。Loury提议将平权法案扩大到社会弱势的白人。他接着强调，平等的教育机会需要在比上大学更早的阶段实现。在另一通电话之后，Loury以一种前瞻性的观点结束，我们必须希望有一个不分肤色的社会，在这个社会中，种族真的不重要。

• Roving Philosophical Report(寻求6点55分):心理学教授费·克罗斯比(Faye Crosby)和舒卡·卡兰塔利(Shuka Kalantari)一起总结了平权行动的历史，从60年代初的概念，到此后迅速面临的法律斗争。今天，有九个州不再使用平权法案。
  
• 60 Second Philosopher(seek to 46:30): Ian Shoales reports on the evolution of affirmative action, starting as a measure that afforded minorities opportunities to succeed and slowly becoming an advantage in allowing them to do so. He concludes by putting recent debates like about Black Lives Matter and transgender use of bathrooms into context.