In this essay I will evaluate whether or not job applicant quotas are a solution to racial inequality in the United States of America . In considering this argument I will draw on James Rachels's In Defense of Quotas which argues that the use of quotas is justifiable in certain circumstances. I will first qualify my use of the word race and clarify what I mean when I refer to racial equality. Then I will present the argument that quotas will not work as the only solution to racial inequality. I will then argue a premise for my main argument, which is that not all races are equally qualified for potentially equivalent jobs. Next I will consider a possible objection to my argument, namely that quotas should be enacted even if applicants are not equally qualified for a job. Finally, I will conclude that although quotas for selecting job applicants might work if minority groups had equivalent qualifications, if quotas alone were enacted, they would most likely fail to address monetary inequality between different racial groups. First of all, I must clarify that when I use the word race I mean to express the socially constructed idea that groups of people are classified or can legitimately be classified based on their appearance or ethnicity. While I find the term meaningful only to the extent that it is used in society, since the topic of this essay concerns the socially constructed idea of ​​race, I too will fall into language that I ultimately consider to be somewhat misleading. For this article I will consider racial inequality as the quantifiable difference between groups when groups of people are classified based on their appearance or ethnicity. Given that the United States of America is capital-dominant... middle of paper... I supported my premises, particularly the idea that not all races are equally qualified for potentially equivalent jobs when considering the college considered an important qualification. I subsequently responded to the possible objection that such quotas should still be brought into play, which would appear to have limited success, to say the least. Therefore, it seems that, as Rachels presents them, if only quotas were enacted for employee selection, they would most likely fail to resolve monetary inequality between different racial groups. While I must admit that Rachels did not claim that quotas are an absolute solution to inequality in the United States, it seems that viewing quotas as a solution to social inequality while overlooking the fact that groups of people classified by race are not equally qualified is not a solution to racial inequality.