  The terms of the popular debate over racial and gender preferences often mirrored the arguments philosophers and other academics were making to each other. Preference’s defenders offered many reasons to justify them, reasons having to do with compensatory or distributive justice, as well as reasons having to do with social utility (more African-Americans in the police department would enable it better to serve the community, more female professors in the classroom would inspire young women to greater achievements). Critics of preferences retorted by pointing to the law. And well they should, since the text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 seemed a solid anchor even if general principle proved elusive. Title VI of the Act promised that “[n]o person…shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial  assistance.”[7]  Title VII similarly prohibited all employment practices that discriminated on the basis of race, gender, religion, or national  origin.[8] 