A friend and colleague is a PhD in a big fintech, and approached me about doing network analysis of the effect of unconscious or low grade racism within a corporation. (my background is Machine Learning and hers is social network analysis). Her idea is to convey the idea that the cumulative effect of differential access (to friend networks, mentoring, internships) can be a powerful form of racism.

So I made up the word affirmative access, but really the idea came from the early stages of that work (we STILL don't have the NDAs nor funding secured so that work may remain a pipe dream). But either way, I have become quite a believer in the idea.

For me it is a big "ah hah" to realize that fixing differential access with "unfair" extra minority access, is so much more palatable to all involved, than affirmative action... and if it were executed systematically at all levels in the education stack, it could be more impactful, since in the end. It would result in capable minorities that were then winning jobs and promotions on merit alone.

One could even completely remove color from the program entirely, but simply capturing stats on all subgroups of any type (racial, geographic, economic, etc.) And then provide extra access... (just an extra chance to be considered on merit alone... but dont systematically at all levels). My guess is this would be a HUGE boost to the most motivated & capable... and layer after layer they compete on merit alone to get to the next level.

I think a program like this especially stripped of specific color bias could be acceptable to liberals and conservatives alike since it is based on merit, and since it affords benefit to any subgroup that statistically is under-represented within an area.