I'm dubious that economic standing isn't a better criteria than race in most situations where affirmative action would be desirable. Providing programs to help

I'm dubious that economic standing isn't a better criteria than race in most situations where affirmative action would be desirable. Providing programs to help those in a weaker economic position more directly addresses the need, results in programs that everyone can feel that maybe they or their family might benefit from, and avoids perpetuating raced based discrimination and the resulting resentment. If when economic equality isn't the inequality you're attempting to correct it's so highly correlated that it should be sufficient-- after all, a big part about why we care about the lasting effects of historic racism is that it has produced a lasting weakened economic standing.