Let’s use a simple metaphor. You have a bridge. One side of the bridge is heavier than the other, so it’s not balanced. You add a counterweight to balance the bridge.

Several years later, someone says “there’s no need for this counterweight anymore, it’s just unbalancing the bridge.” If the bridge was rebuilt to address the imbalances, you’d be right. But it wasn’t rebuilt, it’s the same bridge with the same flaws it had when the counterweight was put in place. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need affirmative action. But pretending we’re in that ideal world isn’t actually solving anything.