ABSTRACT
The trouble with compensatory discrimination in favor of a group, say its critics, is that it is discrimination. It is morally wrong because it accords differential treatment on morally irrelevant grounds—it distributes reparations on the basis of group membership, whereas if reparations are to be made, they should be made to the individuals who have been wronged (see William A. Nunn, chapter 5, and Alan H. Goldman, chapter 7, this volume). The defenders of compensatory discrimination for groups tend to deny that its criteria are morally irrelevant. A person's membership in a group, they say, may become morally relevant when there has been systematic discrimination against that group (see Paul W. Taylor, chapter 4).
