Why was affirmative action such a big issue in the 1990s?

[darklordoftech]

What made it flare up in the beginning of the 90s and fade away at the end of the 90s?

[Del Tachi]

Bush justified vetoing the Civil Rights of 1990 on the grounds that it would have amounted to racial quotas in Federal employment.  There were also several major Supreme Court related to affirmative action around this time.  This led President Clinton to review all affirmative action guidelines across the Federal government in 1995.  Congressional Republicans responded with their own legislation to kill race- or gender-based affirmative action in all federal programs, but it was never passed.

The end of the 1990s saw multiple states (most notably CA and WA) pass ballot initatives banning affirmative action in higher education, public contracting and hiring.  The Supreme Court refused to hear challenges to these initatives, and they were allowed to go into effect. 

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

Only thing I can think of, besides what's already been posted, is the early 90s recession and the weak recovery from it. It wasn't really an issue during the 80s boom, was it?

[AtorBoltox]

Insert Attwater quote here