Apparently, affirmative action has so many emotionally charged connotations, that politicians don't like to use the term.
However, I'm not so encumbered. In fact, I hate affirmative action. I'm not afraid to call it racial discrimination.
I am a victim of affirmative action. I took the written civil service test in 1972 in the city of Detroit, Michigan for the position of Deputy Sheriff. I scored number 05, out of over 2,000 applicants. I completed the physical agility tests and oral boards flawlessly. I needed that job so bad. I barely kept body and soul together waiting and waiting while being laid off from a job. It was so hard waiting, and I got divorced from my first wife during this time.
I was not hired for two years. There were some 40 or 50 black females hired ahead of me, as deputies. As it turned out, several of them had already been fired for such things as Cowardice, Repeated failure to meet standards at the gun range, and I don't know what all else. When I qualified at the gun range, one of those black females was still there still trying to qualify (with her attorney present if you can believe that) and suing the department for her job on a racial basis.
I'm not a racist man. One of my best childhood friends, who is still a Deputy back there in Detroit to this very day, is married to a black women who was a vice cop when they got married. They have 5 children last time we spoke. She is a very good cook and a beautiful person.
I just want to get on record. Affirmative action is a vile thing.