Many other groups have been persecuted and have pulled themselves up by the bootstraps without any kind of affirmative action. - What I hear in this statement, after you acknowledge all the adversity against them, is that blacks (or other minority groups facing similar adversities) just need to try harder, work harder, overcome these obstacles before them with nothing done on your part to mitigate or lessen these inequalities. You acknowledge the various factors of racism, institutionalized discrimination, socioeconomic imbalance, the achievement gap (to name a few) that work against them, why don't you want to do something to lower the hurdle?
why it is that those who had no hand in such abuses should be forced to pay for the deeds of others. - Who is asking you to pay anything? We are talking about affirmative action, not reparations. And no, you personally have never held a slave or segregated a school or denied a black couple a loan or committed hate crime, but if you are a white male, statistics show beyond all doubt that this history has given you a CLEAR ADVANTAGE over a black male (or whatever other race permutation fits your fancy).
See, if you don't hear the word nigger.... it is still considered "said". - I am simply arguing it was more likely that it was uttered, especially given the footage of protesters spitting on other congressmen. Like I said, there can be no proof as the roar of the crowd dampened out ANYTHING ELSE. But you seem to rush to the defense of the group shown to be capable and likely to yell racial epithets, rather than those who often hear those same racial epithets yelled at them.