What is affirmative action?

well, i'll try to explain it as i see it. affirmative action is a policy enacted several decades ago with the purpose of creating an 'equal playing field' for underrepresented groups in schools (usually colleges/universities) and the workplace. Underrepresented groups included ethnic minorities and white women. The policy has come under scrutiny today because many people (i'm not going single out a specific group) complain that it gives unfair advantages to ethnic minorities. several research groups have studied affirmative action's effects, coming up with the result that white women primarily benefit (i believe asians do as well). they also studied what would happen if the policy were to be removed, and the results were that asians would benefit even more than they already had. at several acclaimed campuses in california, aa was removed by the regents and a significant drop in minority students on campus occurred. this does not mean that the minority applicants were unqualified. in fact, many had stopped applying to the schools, and those that did and were accepted often declined. aa is a very sensitive issue to many. people believe that racism is completely eradicated, but the fact remains that discrimination in the areas that aa targets still occurs. this is my objective viewpoint/observation on the situation.