An #ILLINOIS affirmative action success story, written by @Russian_Starr https://t.co/8DSEodmbea pic.twitter.com/wHaMqxHWyp

— Diana Yates (@diana_yates_) December 11, 2015

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Scalia’s notion missed the point of affirmative action entirely, though, as do similar critiques that such programs somehow take opportunities away from white people and give them to minorities. I would know — my education was a product of affirmative action. While it may have paid for me to go to school, it hasn’t helped me at all when it comes to finding a job.

In 2009, I graduated from the University of Illinois with a master’s degree in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies that was paid for with a two-year fellowship earmarked for minority students. Before I arrived at Illinois, I had no experience studying Russian, though I did have a solid knowledge of Georgian from a two-year stint in the Peace Corps there. My GPA from undergraduate was solid, but my Graduate Record Exam scores were so poor I didn’t even meet the application requirements for some elite graduate Russian studies programs. Fortunately, Illinois looked at my Peace Corps experience, my undergraduate record at my tiny liberal arts college and other intangibles and awarded me an affirmative action fellowship after I was accepted into my program.

I excelled.

Not only did I improve my Georgian language skills and gain a solid knowledge of Russian, I earned a Fulbright grant to research African diasporas in Ukraine and undertook year-long intensive Russian language study in Kiev. I also picked up another master’s degree in journalism and led a team of my peers on a two-week reporting trip to Romania and Italy, where we conducted in-depth reporting on Romania’s transition into the European Union.

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In my current work as a journalist, my knowledge of Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe helps me to tell stories of the black experience from places where many Americans never thought black people existed.

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Affirmative action paid for my degree, but it can’t get me a full-time job writing about foreign policy. When news breaks from the former Soviet world, I rarely see a black face on network television delivering commentary. Most of the staff writers who cover international affairs at major publications are white men. Meanwhile, if I can write about Russian affairs three times in a month, after submitting dozens of pitches, I am very lucky.

So yes, I have the degree, but white writers have all of the foreign policy staff jobs. I’m still out here looking for one. That is why any suggestion that affirmative action positions me to take “a slot” from a white person baffles me. My ability to do anything at all in this space is thanks, in large part, to that affirmative action fellowship I got, which helped me get a key credential. Had Illinois viewed my previous lack of formal academic training as a disadvantage, I never would have had an opportunity to prove that I could, in fact, excel in this field.

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RTWT, I chopped it badly.