I'm a white person who grew up with significant disadvantages, however if I were black...

[Gormy Cuss]

71. I think her point was that pre-affirmative action, there was no reason needed

to ignore the African-American candidates outright. Employers refused to consider them.

After affirmative action became law, there had to be some defensible reason why the white candidate was chosen over the African-American candidate and a relatively small difference in skills (like typing 55 wpm rather than 40 wpm) could be discounted in the hiring decision in favor of other skills/experience where the white candidate was stronger -- even if the job ad had emphasized typing speed as an important skill.

Now if the African-American candidate typed 80 wpm, she would have been so far superior in skills that the hiring manager would be hard pressed to explain why the 40 wpm blonde was hired instead. In effect the bar was raised higher for African-American candidates-- to be considered they had to be not just as qualified, but substantially better qualified.

So it's not that affirmative action made it harder, but that affirmative action didn't level the playing field. At least that's how I read Cleita's posts.