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There are many ways to think about property rights. Among secular thinkers one of the main divisions is between those who believe in "natural" property rights and those who believe that property rights are the product of government. For those who believe in strong natural property rights, one of the traditional problems has been to justify the first or original acquisition of property. John Locke tried to do this by saying that someone who took something from the "state of nature" mixed a part of himself with it. It thereby became his (with certain qualifications). There are discussions of Locke's argument in Nozick and Thomson, although their views are quite different. There is an extensive discussion of Locke's view in James Tully's book A Discourse on Property.

If there are strong natural property rights of the sort that libertarians defend, it will be difficult to argue that discrimination against black job applicants by private employers is morally wrong or unjust. Dee takes the libertarian view. Someone might object to this view on various grounds. They could criticize natural property rights in general. They could claim that white employers did not justly acquire their property. Or they might claim that in the case of race in the United States these rights have such harmful consequences that they should be restricted. All of these criticisms are made by speakers in the dialogue.