International Journal of Economic Development Volume 10, Number 1, pp. 1-31 2016 THE QUEST FOR RACIAL EQUALITY: A PUBLIC POLICY FRAMEWORK RONALD SCHMIDT, SR. California State University, Long Beach ABSTRACT This essay asserts there are three central questions that must be addressed in developing public policies aimed at reducing racial inequality in American society. After articulating these central questions, the essay elaborates the most prominent rationales provided by proponents of each side of the central questions, and illustrates the rationales with examples of policies adopted and/or proposed by proponents of each side. The essay concludes with the suggestion that the positions taken in response to the three central questions are directly tied to underlying assumptions and/or arguments about the most important causes of continuing racial inequality in American society. Keywords: racial equality, “formal” equality of opportunity, “fair” equality of opportunity, human resource development, structural change, ethnoracially monistic, ethnoracially pluralistic INTRODUCTION After several decades of very little attention in public discourse in the United States, the subject of racial inequality has been re- charged in recent years. Coinciding with increased public awareness and political attention to growing inequality and increased poverty among the population as a whole, the Black Lives Matter movement has generated greater attention on the question of racial inequality in particular. Despite the growing