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An 80% Africian-American population with an all white police force is inherently unjust. First, you have to wonder how this happened. Was racism involved? Even if it wasn't, obviously not enough was being done to make this work environment more diverse. The Police force should "look like" the community; in this case, the force should have only a 20% white population. When you're at work today...look around. How many minorities have executive positions; is this what your community (the rest of the company) "looks like"? If you are white, do you have any close friends that would be considered minorities? If not, why not? Even if your against racism, have you made enough of an effort to get to know other people...or do you feel more comfortable hanging around similar people to yourself?
Second, what kind of message does this send to the community and the rest of the world? If you are a young, African-American person growing up in this community and aspire to be on the police force, you have no role models to look up to. In fact, you may start to think that you could never be a police officer, because you're the wrong color. This is where affirmative action comes in. In this particular case, let's assume that you're the Chief of Police and have a few openings. You have in front of you several qualified applicants...some better than others...but they're all "qualified". For the good of the community and the personal growth of the youth, do you seek out the African-American applicant and place them ahead of possibly other, better qualified candidants?
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