A key problem
A key problem with the logic of "We hire on the basis of skill, not ethnicity/gender/minority status" is the implicit assumption that your recruitment practices are perfect, and that the best candidates for your workplace are usually straight, white males. (Unless, of course, you have a richly diverse workforce, in which case well done you.)
In a work environment that is primarily of one ethnic group, it makes sense to wonder if there might be a bias towards that group in your recruitment practices. On a wider level, if genuinely there are no suitably qualified candidates outside that group, there may be issues around opportunities and education that need to be addressed.
Ultimately, Affirmative Action and quotas aren't about hiring unqualified people to tick some boxes, it's about ensuring you are hiring the best people, and giving people who might ordinarily miss out opportunities they have been excluded from in the past.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
