[xp84]

First, you cannot know if "discrimination" gave a positive boost to a kid from looking at their skin. Poor white and Asian kids can have all the same disadvantages (or more) than a randomly-selected Black kid. You can only make such a claim in the aggregate. The punishments applied by the quota systems that Democrats embrace, however, are applied individually to all members of the races deemed "too represented." That's what makes it so odious (and it's why those of us who used to proudly identify as "Strong Democrat" 15 years ago have always hated racist policies.)

The punitive institutionalized discrimination being extended against Asians merely because they on average do better at school than other ethnic groups really drives home how unfair this is. I'd go so far as to claim that no structural/institutional factors have boosted Asian kids. They do better (better than the white kids) probably because their parents value education the most, due to a shared cultural value. Our society's response to that shouldn't be to treat those kids as surplus unneeded human capital because of where their ancestors were born.

> Discrimination was everywhere... I was white, I was male... I certainly wasn’t the best for the job.

Well, if that truly did happen to you (you interviewed all those competing for the positions and knew who was best?) then yeah, that's quite racist. The solution to racism isn't "More racism, but flipped against whoever's done better recently." We already had the actual solution figured out many years ago, and it's judging people only by their merits.