I believe the real subtext was "it was easier to force 'diversity admissions' than it was to tell donors their idiot kids had to get in line like everybody else

I believe the real subtext was "it was easier to force 'diversity admissions' than it was to tell donors their idiot kids had to get in line like everybody else". There are a bunch of other issues that affirmative action was meant to solve as well, but it did exist explicitly as a counterbalance to the fact that the universities felt they needed legacy admissions to attract donors. Its just also the case that, going back to Jim Crow, grandfathering people in was a great way to fortify racial disparity whilst not having any explicitly racist policies on the books.