No, "Affirmative Action" means that you affirmatively look "beyond the usual suspects" when looking for recruits in schools and for jobs. So, when colleges began visiting more black high schools and corporate recruiters began visiting black college campuses, which they had not routinely done before, then they were, in FACT and practice, carrying out Affirmative Action.
Another point Americans fail to remember is that white females have been the main beneficiaries of Affirmative Action. There was no chance of any bill passing Congress that only benefited the black population. Affirmative Action was written to include females in order to make it more palatable to the general public, and white females have made tremendous gains in professions and pay more than any other group.
Whoever gave you your definition of Affirmative Action as "slots" and "quotas" was misinformed either deliberately or mistakenly. That person, or persons, have passed their misinformation on to you. So, whether you wish to believe it or not, going where you didn't go before (and recruiters simply ignored black institutions of higher learning) is exactly what Affirmative Action was. What they discovered that there were people "beyond the usual suspects," which I have used deliberately twice, who were more than capable of performing well.
One mistake that white people make is believing that other people are "given" something that rightfully belongs to them. They presume that if a person of color is hired for a position, then that person must necessarily be less qualified than white candidates. Why is it that they never say that about white candidates? In employment law, any candidate who meets the minimum qualifications posted for a job is qualified for that job, period. As long as a candidate meets those qualifications, then they are qualified for that job. While there may be "Preferred Qualifications," the number of people with those additional qualifications may or may not be hired. It is up to the employer to decide who is the best match for a particular position. Rarely is there "one best person."
Your belief in quotas and metrics is just that; a popular belief held by people who want to believe that they are being cheated out of something.
