Perhaps at some point AA had its merits, such as in the 60s or 70s, when some minorities were severely disadvantaged.

Today the landscape has changed. There is already an African American president (of course, that does not mean all races are equal; nevertheless, it underscores the advances the American society has made in the last decades. This would have been unthinkable in the 60s or 70s).

AA is discrimination, pure and simple. It is a way to differentially divide finite social resources based on race. Things like college entrance should be judged by merits along, anything else is discrimination, however thinly or thickly they are veiled.

I suggest you guys read GMU professor Walt Willaims' short article on AA (Williams is African American):

http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/articles/03/aa.html

Quote:
For black politicians, civil rights organizations and white liberals to support the racist practices of the University of Michigan amounts to no less than a gross betrayal of the civil rights principles of our historic struggle from slavery to the final guarantee of constitutional rights to all Americans.