Affirmative action... the mere words tend to make the hairs on the back of white males' necks stand at attention. "Reverse discrimination!" they wail... But... honestly, how can that be so? Look at the management and upper levels of virtually any company in the US... what you see is a sea of white male faces with a minor sprinkling of women and people 'of color'. Oh yeah, the poor downtrodden white male is just OH SO discriminated against, isn't he?

Their other cry is "*I* did not personally harm anyone, *I* did not discriminate against anyone, why should *I* be 'penalized'?" That question might have merit if it was not so abyssmally clueless. They benefit all the time by being a white male with a white male dominated power structure. Perfectly qualified women and non-white males would be not hired or passed over for deserved promotions routinely if it were not for affirmative action.

Now let me get one thing perfectly straight with you right off. Affirmative action is not necessarily 'quotas', nor does it legitimately mandate hiring unqualified persons. It is simply a method of attempting to redress generations of practices which have left non-white non-males in an inferior position. And since they benefit from these past atrocities, how can they claim they have no responsibility for redress? If you are rich now because your grandfather ripped off a large number of people, then you most assuredly owe those people and their decendents for your current position, and your current enjoyment of that position obligates you, in my humble opinion.