Also, I do not necessarily disagree with Siss’ point at #6–there may in fact be some less qualified people of color who are promoted/hired under misguided efforts to engage in aff action. Ironically, I think Justice Clarence Thomas is a prime example of this. From what I understand, he was a mediocre legal mind with minimal judicial experience when he was nominated for the court, and the reason he was picked was primarily because he was black, conservative, and wouldn’t make waves. (Interestingly, he accepted this promotion and thus has benefitted from affirmative action in its worst form, but consistently votes against affirmative action policies that could be used in more beneficial ways for other, more qualified, folks of color. Analyze that however you want.) Anyway, I think Siss is right that there may be some cases where people are promoted who shouldn’t be. BUT (and this, I think, is your point and what often gets left out of these debates on aff am), there’s an abundance of sociological research that shows this is way less common than the reverse—abundantly qualified people of color *immediately* being labeled inferior because white employers decided that blackness/Latino-ness = inferior. I do not intend to speak for Siss, but perhaps this is what was meant with the statement (see #7) that it’s not degrading to be an “affirmative action hire” if you fall into the latter group–someone who’s hyperqualified and, because bosses were complying with aff action policies, they had to put aside their own racism to take note of it.