It might help if you thought of affirmative action as not only righting a wrong, but also partial compensation for stealing the lives and labor of enslaved peop

It might help if you thought of affirmative action as not only righting a wrong, but also partial compensation for stealing the lives and labor of enslaved people for profit. That theft has never been repaid. Furthermore, Jim Crow, segregation, and myriad other racist policies and practices prevented black Americans from being able to meaningfully advance, while white America thrived on the wealth created by stolen labor. Republicans like to think that affirmative action is about collective guilt. It’s not. As a white person, I don’t feel guilty about slavery. But, I do recognize a monumental theft which the victims were never compensated for, and which continues to shape our society. Edit: changed “in contrast” to “furthermore”