Affirmative action: essential to achieving justice and good health care for all in America.

Affirmative action is an established principle that brings fairness and justice to admissions policies and practices by setting goals that encourage and pressure institutions and individuals to create educational and professional opportunities for minorities and women, if it were not for affirmative action, we would waste the talents of countless individuals who would be discounted because they are minorities or women. The result would be a nation that is weaker because it would be segregated once again in a system in which white people and men would have the preponderance of opportunity and authority and in which access would be very limited for minorities and women. It may be time to reframe the argument for affirmative action in language that denotes its benefits to all Americans by increasing access for emerging majority citizens now and in the future. ADEA, academic dentistry, and the dental profession should continue to do everything it can to preserve the policies and practices of affirmative action, especially through the support of the University of Michigan admissions policies as challenged in the cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and in our own practices.