Comment by vannevar

The key observation that drives modern affirmative action policy is that you can have systemic bias even in a system where there is no hiring bias at all, if past bias has resulted in under-representation for minorities. If young people in the minority population rarely encounter role models to follow in a specific career, they will be less likely to pursue that career, resulting in under-representation of that minority in the career population, which perpetuates the dearth of minority role models, leading to a vicious cycle. Adding in the economic consequences of historic bias makes the situation even worse. To ignore this systemic bias would be to endorse it, which is in effect the same as endorsing institutionalized bias against the minorities affected.