Back during the height of affirmative action, I had a freind who was trying very hard to be a police officer. He said he went to one of the applications / tryouts where there were several women present. During the sit up section you were required to do so many in 2 minutes, he said he barely made it because they didn't count a ton of his as they said he didn't touch good enough or long enough at the top. Next to him was woman who couldn't do it. When she started to cry (no kidding), they told her not to worry, it didn't matter if "she" could do them. They would give extra points for being ex-military, a minority, female, etc. My freind never did get hired. At forty-two, he still is in good enough shape to go hike a 60 mile hike, climb liberty ridge, and rock climb. I also remember a problem one of the local fire departments was having during this time. It seems that some African-American firemen felt that their counterparts were apprehensive of them. They did a survey and found out that a large percentage were indeed uncomfortable as they felt some were not as qualified. The solution was to make everyone attend diversity training. If I remember right the total possible points on a test was either 120 or 100. Women got 10 extra, minorities got 10, and military got 10. That means a white male could score 120 and be beat by a black, ex-military woman who scored 91. If they were being nicer on the tests, there is no way she is as qualified as the white male. Maybe more qualified then most people, just not as qualified at the best. As a result, anyone who could have qualified with less points, but did not necessarily need them, was treated with suspicion. I had a business acquaintance that told me this happened to him. Every where he went it took a couple of weeks before anyone would treat him ok. He said as a result he would work twice as hard and long as anyone else. In the end, when he moved on he said the guys trusted him so much they actually told him that it sucked because he was replaced by "one of the affirmative action guys".