Thank you for your thoughtful reply, Bob. Perhaps I went to a Black college with a strong academic reputation, I never heard anyone questioning my degree. If they did assume anything, it would be that I got a pass because I was an athlete. The only reason people question a Harvard or Yale degree is because of the constant drumbeat that they Black students weren’t qualified when they arrived or left. Sometimes they did arrive with less preparation because the schools some came from had dated books and the students themselves were directed to classes that didn’t prepare them. They made up for those deficiencies or didn’t survive. The students that did get in due to affirmative action programs would have been denied entry because of their race, later denied good jobs from corporations choosing not to hire them and have had less opportunities to form businesses.

I consider the criticisms of affirmative action against the environment that came before. Barred from what were considered the nation’s best colleges. The country was just beginning to integrate public schools though the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board had theoretically ended segregation two decades earlier. Big businesses were hiring only for menial work and not promoting Black people if they did get in the door. America never truly finished the job of integration and without affirmative action we are taking a huge step backwards.