Yeah, I've seen this too. And it really worries me. It's one of the main things that drove me to start writing about race.

But I still don't think you're quite getting it. The opposition to affirmative action was instantaneous. It wasn't "some people who had doubts about the abilities of people of colour," it was most people actively unwilling to work alongside people of colour (which essentially meant people of colour being denied even basic opportunities). It was a refusal to honestly reckon with the immense educational disadvantages faced by people of colour that left them more likely to lag behind in qualifications. It was the vicious protests by ordinary white adults so opposed to little black boys and girls going to school with their white boys and girls so they could gain those qualifications, that the national guard had to be called in to guarantee the black children's safety.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine

It's not as if white America, as a whole, ever thought, "Huh, I guess black people have really been screwed over in this country for the past forever. Let's genuinely get behind an effort to fix that." It's not as if they thought, "Okay, we've had an absolute monopoly on opportunity in this country and that's wrong. So obviously fixing that means we'll have to forsake some of that opportunity." It's not as if, before the toxicity of the current racial discourse became so bad, most ordinary white people were genuinely engaging.

I think it's really important that more white people who are frustrated with the current racial climate appreciate this. The backlash among some white people today is because, for the first time in American history, they're getting an explicit taste of something that was only directed at black people for centuries. And quite understandably, they hate it. I have no problem understanding that.

But to fix it, more white people need to really try to understand where the anger and distrust and yes, absolutely, the racism amongst some black people is coming from. That "5 years of Hollywood diversity and representation" you've had to endure? Okay, fair enough. I'm not a big fan either. But what are you comparing that to? The decades during which black people didn't exist in movies except to play savages and servants? The continued lack of opportunity in Hollywood for black actors and directors and screen writers? The frustration you're feeling is similar to, but only a fraction of, the frustration many black people feel today and have felt for centuries.

So ask yourself this. What would you like black people to do to ease your frustration? Imagine it had gone on for the past 100 years, say. Or 200. Or 300. Imagine it had gone on for long enough that it had taken a real psychological toll on some white people (as the current craziness already has). Would the things you wanted change? I'm not trying to attack you here. I'm not mad. I hope nothing in my tone here makes you feel you can't pushback or question the arguments I'm making. I totally appreciate the good-faith with which you approached this discussion. But I'm asking you to think seriously about whether there's an aspect to all of this that you haven't really tried to understand.