Segregation may not be an issue today, but my understanding of affirmative action - when it comes to grants and scholarships and such - is that it attempts to rebalance the unfair socioeconomic situations caused by previous racism and civil injustice. That legally we may not subject our people to racial inequality, but its effects still reverberate through what is technically a balanced system. That is, a kid born into a minority family that was forced into the inner city over pre-civil rights movement issues, a place where decent education can be hard to achieve, still experiences that original unequal treatment secondarily by being born into that socioeconomic situation. Maybe that kid wants to better his life, but his situation - thanks to his parents' situation, an effect of systemic racism - won't allow it. This unfair restriction, then, is affirmative action's target. As i understand it, anyway.

i don't know what i think about Affirmative action, though, and i make no value judgements on it.