The merit system (Malik Speaking)
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I can see some beauty in a merit system. And it would have some advantages for blacks, probably more as time goes on.

But it's a mistake to talk as though we have had a merit system and now strong affirmative action is destroying it. We never had a merit system in the past for blacks or whites.

We could aim at a merit system, but FIRST we have to make up for the injustices of the past. I'm thinking of cases like Duke Power where not a single black person was hired in any department except the Labor department. If we don't make up for that sort of thing, then a so-called merit system just solidifies the positions arrived at under the old system.

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