No, it is, in fact, a de facto GENDER policy. More white women have benefited from Affirmative Action than any other group. Let me state again, Affirmative Action means just that. That society's institutions go "beyond the usual suspects" when looking for candidates for jobs and places in schools.

If you believe that Affirmative Action is a race-based policy, then you have fallen for (no matter how thoughtful you may consider yourself to be) the talking points of people who want you to think that people of color disproportionately benefit from Affirmative Action policies. It is to their political and economic benefits for them to convince white people that they are "victims."

Candidates considered for those places were overwhelmingly white and male. Women, black, white, and other, did not get jobs in the business world or places in academies that met their skills .Recall that many of these prestigious institutions did not admit women until the 1970s. Women and people of color regularly got less pay for doing the same job as white men. They still do.

In my working life, I have spent a fair amount of time on personnel committees. I can quote chapter and verse from memory on what many employment and Civil Rights laws state. Can you?