I'm not going to research it but I believe the Supreme Court has held affirmative action programs with the sole criteria of race unconstituional and in violation of Equal Protection unless to remedy past proven discrimination. Proving past discrimination is easy in the South. I worked in the U.S. Senate the year the famous Bakkee decision came down. Many believed it was a cooked up case. UC at Davis had a very crude plan that was based on only race. Bakkee was at the border. Clearly, if he were white. I sat in the Library of Congress and read about forty amicus briefs. They were chock full of charts. Bakkee was an A student, very high medical boards score, worked in emergency services riding in ambulances. His work was clearly longer than just to impress a medical school. The blacks who were admitted had Ds, very low (barely what you score for writing your name correctly) and had no real world experience in medicine. His interviewer at Davis suggested he sue.
Davis was only a handful of educational institutions that used solely race as a criteria. As I said before, lack of education is class based now. People don't think white ethnics when they think of privileged white people. Fewer white ethnics males attend college than black males. Obama points out that not all white people had anything to do with slavery.
The Court merely held that Bakkee had a private cause of action under a civil rights statute that had previously been used by governments only. I can't describe how tense DC was.
Reparations does fit. I'm not the Supreme Court but why allow preferential treatment to remedy past discrimination unless it is based on reparations?
It is not an easy, solveable problem. Frankly, after reading those amicus briefs, I'm terrified by black doctors. Many black professionals reassure others that they were admitted as regular students. Affirmative action is very important to schools. It exposes all students to a wider range of thought and social concerns. The vast majority of those admitted do fine on standardized tests after a couple of years to hone their skills. My law school would do anything to get black students. Their LSATs were pitiful for the most part. The cycle appears to break. The only identification allowed on finals was a social security number. The faculty had no idea what race students were.
It is a rough form of justice. No one said it was fair (maybe a few) but society wants to atone for institutional racism. It is not fun for those left out. There are ways to benefit this group without using race as a sole criteria. It is inflammatory when there is no need for it. Economic status should work fine.