I am alarmed the Legislature is seriously considering banning affirmative action policies in Utah government employment, contracts and university admissions. My alarm is related to the misunderstanding of affirmative action that is revealed in "Anti-discrimination pitch plodding through process" ( Tribune , Feb. 22).

Contrary to perceptions of opponents that affirmative action is "reverse discrimination" and "unfair," or arguments by proponents that affirmative action is about fairness and upholding the 1964 Civil Rights Act, affirmative action was never intended to be about "fairness" but about "justice." Its original ideology was to atone for past wrongs -- namely, the wrongs created by slavery and the century of Jim Crow segregation after the Civil War. These latter were not declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court until 1954.

The broader ideal of affirmative action was and is to be more than fair, to compensate minorities who have suffered the negative effects of racist laws that keep them from competitively pursuing the American dream on a level playing field.

Affirmative action initiatives were not then and are not now intended to be "fair," but to be "just."

Emma R. Gross

Salt Lake City