Yes, it’s true that settlers worked their butts off. And yes, affirmative action was about giving preference over those who ostensibly were more deserving. What I didn’t know was if that was really the case. I believed that a person deprived of a proper education would almost automatically perform more poorly than one who had had an adequate or above average education.
Even today, I know that slots at Harvard are going to blue bloods. They can give them to whomever they want, they’re a private institution. But even a public one would have trouble trying to balance this stuff.
I know that giving a kid baseball lessons with Pete Rose is for the most part giving him an advantage over some kid receiving baseball lessons from me.
I was a beneficiary of the G.I. Bill of WWII having served in the Pacific. I came away with a science/engineering degree from the most renowned public university in the world. I saw during those years many young men who should have taken advantage of the opportunities available. I also saw quite a few ex G.I.s who used the Bill just to have something to do. The G.I. Bill had it’s god and it’s bad tendencies.