White Privlige and Ignoring the Problem

[Ryantology]

Isn't affirmative action a response to people being hired solely according to their merits?

In the sense that being born with light skin color was considered a merit, yes.

I had black and white friends in roughly equal proportions growing up. If you want to call it a benefit, I had the benefit of not growing up in a place that allowed for a great deal of racial isolation.

I have also lived in places where white racism is very much alive and well and I don't believe for a second that institutional racism is a thing of the past. It's just not being paraded out in the open like it once was.