Because of Past Racial Discrimination, Senior Employees at a Plant

Because of past racial discrimination, senior employees at a plant are all white. The junior workers are racially mixed. A reduction in business forces the firm to fire half its workers. To protect the racial composition of the workers, the company will lay off white older workers. This policy is likely to be viewed by the courts as:

A) an illegal violation of a bona fide occupational qualification
B) a legal way to preserve the racial mix of the work force
C) an illegal violation of the rights of the senior workers that can be corrected by laying-off junior white workers to preserve the jobs of the junior black employees
D) a legal way to create the equivalent of an affirmative action program
E) none of the other choices