But is the problem not racial? As in - if you took too poor people, one black and one white, one speaking 'white', another speaking 'black', cleaned them up and

But is the problem not racial? As in - if you took too poor people, one black and one white, one speaking 'white', another speaking 'black', cleaned them up and sent them out looking for jobs, would one have an advantage over the other? I think the point of affirmative action is not to make poor people rich, it's to negate a disadvantage a certain skin color may have. This disadvantage may extend into the upper strata of society. If it's to correct a disadvantage based of a color of skin, to me it seems to make sense to use the color of skin as the indicator. And from what I understand, anyone in the U.S can basically call themselves 'Black'. So if the advantage were so great, any white person can just call themselves black and gain those same advantages.