[troelsSteegin]

I don't understand why affirmative action would be a problem for physics departments. What's the basis of that? As an outsider, I'll say that I see the jobs of a physics department as a) making physics b) making physicists c) teaching physics d) funding making physics. How is affirmative action an "obvious" issue?

[inglor_cz]

"How is affirmative action an "obvious" issue?"

This isn't obvious to me either. While I can see that hiring to match predetermined racial quota can result in subpar performance, most of the world does not play the diversity/inclusion game in the way that USA does, and does not seem to have better results.

[getlawgdon]

It's just more "subtle" dogwhistling on HA. There's nothing wrong with AA in physics because there is still huge underrepresentation in physics.