Combating injustice with more injustice, and racism with more racism, is philosophically contradictory and pragmatically ham-fisted. In the United States, affirmative action has entrenched racial divisions and pitted minorities against one another. These finger-on-the-scale policies have often benefited the economically well off who happen to tick a racial box. Intrinsically paternalistic, affirmative action has stigmatized and demoralized the very populations it was designed to help.
