I was so dumb it didn't occur to me to worry why the best assignments went to Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. But at least somebody gave a chance to me, and so many other women, blacks and other minorities. What we did with the chance was up to us. We've changed the face of the workplace, lived lives we otherwise would have been denied for no reason other than who we are. That's why this is personal to me.
Fear has something to do with it, but only something.
We're comfortable with diversity of faces, but not diversity of ideas. We want men and women, black and white, English and Spanish, yes, but we expect, no, demand, that everybody agree with us. This is the mindset that dismisses Connerly as a sellout for opposing affirmative action. The labels do our thinking for us. They help us avoid looking any deeper.