The catch is that it's a feedback loop: the fact that a minority is disproportionately poor leads to stereotypes (conscious or not, and the unconscious biases c

The catch is that it's a feedback loop: the fact that a minority is disproportionately poor leads to stereotypes (conscious or not, and the unconscious biases can be quite substantial) about that minority. Those stereotypes throw additional obstacles in the path of that minority. So even absent any idea of the government "owing" a group for historical wrongs, there's (to me ) a convincing argument that affirmative action is needed. It helps break the feedback cycle. Completely eliminating class distinctions would also break the cycle pretty quickly, but that seems staggeringly unlikely any time soon. :(