This is it.Political deference to the minority lobby.I would consider the belief that a minority group is unable to excel without your help a rather racist belief and the underscoring belief that inspires AA.No, affirmative action programs are not racist. They are not because racism is a set of beliefs and for an program, pogrom or other deed to be racist, it must be inspired by those beliefs in order to qualify as a racist one. Affirmative action does discriminate in terms of to whom its favors are granted. Discrimination, however, is not always inspired by racism. In the case of affirmative action, racist beliefs and the desire/will to act on them are not what inspires it.
So if this is case, why keep Affirmative Action, why is it still used?
It is politically untenable to eliminate AA and it is still used as a tool to garner votes.