I never had any guilt either. My parents came to the US in 1948. Pops worked two blue collar union jobs (railroad, post office) over a 35 year period. In the late 1960’s he took the civil service exam trying to go from the railroad (which was dying at the time) to the post office. Despite a good score, he was passed over for minority applicants with lower scores. Eventually he got in. He was smart enough to know that education was the key to success. My two sisters and I have three bachelors degrees and three masters degrees between us and are doing pretty well in America. I guess that is the real American dream.... We all had to overcome affirmative action to get into college and grad school... Yeah, no guilt at all....
I am retired Army. What actually happened was I enlisted and did my first three years, went to Nam, got wounded, rehabbed, went to Germany and patrolled the East-West border. Then I got out of the Army.
So, I go home, enrolled in the junior college and since I was 21, I could put in for the police department. So, I go to the city civil service board and sign up. Get the call, go take the test, get my score later and told I am like #4 on the list. Then a couple of weeks later get another letter and AM TOLD THE TEST IS NULL AND VOID!! Why???? NO BLACKS PASSED THE TEST!!! They said that they were REQUIRED to hire one black for EVERY one white they hired!!! So, month or two later, took the test again. Again passed and was like #2 on the list. GUESS WHAT?? You get only one guess. RIGHT, no blacks passed it again and once again the darn test was tossed out. So, third time is a charm, right? WRONG. Passed it the 3d time and was like #2 on the list again. BUT NO BLACKS COULD PASS THE DAMNED TEST!!!! EVERY stinking one, in every test, FAILED!!!
By that time I had had it. The local recruiter, whom I knew, had been calling me and trying too get me to come back into the Army. I was sick of civilian life, civilian hiring practices, the garbage of it, and knowing that I was happier in the military than I was at trying to HOPE some black guy in our town would pass the test, I just said to hell with it. I missed being in the Army, I am going back. I reupped, got my sergeant E-5 stripes back, got a signing bonus, and picked my post of assignment. Chose Fort Campbell, KY and the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and did my other 17 years. HAD my attempts to get into the police department been successful, I might have been a city cop all those years and would not have done a military career. But, in the end, it turned out the best for me, because I actually enjoyed being in the service and not patrolling the ghetto rousting drunks and druggies.