The topic of whether affirmative action is reverse discrimination or equal opportunity has been debated for years.

"Many people think of this as a racial issue, and it is not a racial issue," said Anton Woods, a computer engineering freshman. "I personally feel affirmative action wasn't a way of making another group above another one. It was pretty much saying the other had a privilege that was born through discrimination."

Woods attended a debate Thursday where two professors presented their views on affirmative action in front of mostly MSU students. It took place at a conference titled "Race in 21st Century America" at Kellogg Center.

Professors Darryl Thomas, from Penn State University, and Jonas Zoninsein, from MSU, explained the connection between a historical lack of opportunities for minorities and the development of affirmative action.

Thomas said there has to be equal opportunities for everybody to have an equal chance in today's competitive markets — whether in education or jobs. Without affirmative action, those opportunities don't exist.

"The system is failing the American people," he said.

Matthew Hovey, a human biology junior, agreed. He said affirmative action is a vehicle with endless possibilities.

"It has actually opened the privilege to them that they would not normally be able to get," he said. "But they weren't able to use that privilege to the full extent because they couldn't get the long-term mentoring programs and access to university structures."

Zoninsein said it is important for minorities to have equal opportunities to be educated. But, he said, Michigan's former system of affirmative action perhaps wasn't the best way to achieve this equality.

"There is inequality in society," he said. "There are issues of class, issues of race, issues of gender that have to be dealt with. And the question is how are we going to deal with this complex issue?"

Michigan voters decided to end the state's affirmative action programs in November's election.

The fifth biennial conference, which began Wednesday and ends today, drew national experts on racism and public education and white privilege. The conference was sponsored by James Madison College and the Midwest Consortium for Black Studies.

Curtis Stokes, a James Madison College professor, was chairman of the conference planning committee.

Stokes began the conference in 1999 to foster discussions on race. During the 1990s, he spent time at Columbia University, where he said he observed more events like this and wanted to bring them to MSU.

"It was a way to bring together not just blacks to talk about their relationship with whites in the United States," Stokes said, "But to have a conference involving or representing the diversity of the United States."

Stokes hopes in the future, the conference will not be necessary. "But at the moment, I just feel it's important to continue having this conversation," he said.

This year's theme was "Youth and the Future of America," with some 170 students from Michigan's inner-city high schools attending.

"It's an important opportunity for students to learn about various issues they may study in high school and will study in college," said Jeff Judge, director of admissions for James Madison College.