I'm in my sixties, and when I was growing into adulthood and then later, I always thought affirmative action was explicitly originally intended to help Black folks, as part of a process of compensating for past crimes against Blacks.

Maybe I didn't bother reading enough about its history or intent. But that was always my line of thinking. It always seemed to me to be the right thing, so I never paid it much mind.

In other words, I don't really care much if it helps everyone. To me, it was a small, very small, step, toward a type of reparations. Barely throwing a bone, at that.

The argument that conservatives use that we should be colorblind during the process of college admissions ignores the history of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, workplace discrimination, police profiling and mass incarceration, etc.

I don't think we should be colorblind. We should be color-aware, and whites should actively embrace the need to redress wrongs by asking Black folks, "What do you need?" and listening to them.

Articles like this help with that process.