Do you think society has evolved enough to the point where if Affirmative Action were to end, hiring practices would continue as they've been with it in place, or do you suspect that it would return to the days of women/minorities being blatantly shunned from employment?

I don't know about that one. On one hand, women and minorities have proven that they can do the work, but that doesn't mean that the up tight men want them working there anymore than they did before. It's a known fact women still aren't getting paid equal to their male coworkers, and why is that allowed to continue when everybody knows it, and that is an illegal activity?

I don't have faith in society to do the right thing in this regard. Too many people get off on being exclusionists.

ITA with marc! I think things would backslide.

Does it matter? It's wrong to tell people who they can and cannot hire, regardless of the morality of the situation. Telling people who they can or cannot hire is little different from forcing them to exclude. Businesses should be able to hire who they want. Most businesses, I believe, want the highest qualified person regardless or their race or gender. Why? Because businesses want success because success breeds profit. If a business is going to play a discrimination game, they likely will end up going under because they won't be able to compete.

So yeah, an end to labeling people? I got no issues with that.