Why Affirmative Action Is Fair

Desert Crone is a long time reader and posted a comment today in light of the Trump/long form birth certificate/Manchurian candidate/fear mongering/boo whitey! fiasco. And I think it's important enough to make it a post of its own.

Desert Crone:

Slavery began over 500 years ago, but it has never ended. To understand the impact of slavery, which decimated the African continent--the effect of which we see today--you must imagine if slave traders came to America and stole our strongest, healthiest, smartest, youngest members of our society. The impact of that would be felt for generations. But even after slavery ended, Jim Crow laws were implemented to keep African-Americans out of the voting booth, public places, and schools. It was even illegal for them to learn to read. Ask yourself how long it would have taken America to recover from 500+ years of that kind of human destruction and oppression. For those of you who dismiss slavery as an episode in American history, or who say blacks should get over it, then shame, shame on you.

And for those of you who oppose affirmative action because it discriminates against whites, well, where have you been for the last 40 years? Why didn't you complain about discrimination against people of color? Do you really think people of color aren't discriminated against every day? How naive you must be! We owe African-Americans a chance at America's colleges; we owe them a shot at the best jobs. We owe them because America kept them under a whip and bootheel for 500+ years. So stop whining about fairness--affirmative action is FAIR. It gives a fair shot to those people who have suffered unspeakable horrors throughout our history.