re: Question Regarding Black Unemployment

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It was never about putting people into positions they did not earn.

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Once you consider race as an objective value to be scored, you've done exactly this - the opposite of what Dr. King was suggesting.

Now - let me describe for you a situation I can support:

When I went to LSU Law School, we had a hardline, objective index - 20x your undergraduate GPA plus your LSAT. They set the index to accommodate 300 incoming students into 4 75-person sections. No interview, no "volunteer" work review, no gender, no international points - nada.

Now - the minority outreach was a different program. If you were within range of the index (ETA: And a member of an identified, disadvantaged minority group - for Louisiana, these were predominantly African American students) - I think it may have been 2 points, but perhaps as many as 5 - you got a "play in" chance. This was a pre-1L summer program where you could take a legal research and writing class for a grade. Depending on the grade, you could earn admission to the incoming 1L class (because of inevitable attrition there were always early casualties and the administration was committed to creating as many extra spots as needed to facilitate the successful summer program students).

That's a hand up. That's a valid exercise of "affirmative action." That's not taking a seat from a qualified white or Asian student and giving it to an unqualified black or Hispanic student, respectfully, IMHO, which is what most AA programs are.