What if social status were based on time of arrival?
Jamaica Kincaid:
What if social status in American society were based on nothing else but time of arrival? By now, the very top of American society would be thoroughly integrated, if not majority African American. And instead of Jesse Jackson having to defend every ridiculous idea he has against some equally ridiculous counter-idea, his ridiculous ideas would be the ones by which we all had to live. For example, I do not like affirmative action, but only as it might apply to me; if I suspect that I were the victim of this idea, I believe I would appreciate the element of kindness in it and say, “Thank you very much. How nice,” and politely reject this favor. But affirmative action seems appropriate to many people whose ancestors were brought here centuries ago, and so who am I, someone who just got off the boat yesterday, someone coming from another bleak crevice of the world, to tell them otherwise.
Putting Myself Together, p. 146