i think you miss my point. i doubt anyone would argue that affirmative action is not racist by definition. it is. but it's not really harmful racism, and it's in place to reduce the more harmful racism that is out there. affirmative action is for the long term, and opposers to it usually only think of the short term.
you're simplifying the situation too much. affirmative action is racism, but i believe it's justified. economics does play a huge part in the racism that goes on now, maybe the biggest. the reason there is racism against minorities is that they are seen as unintelligent, dirty, lazy, criminal, and whatever else. all this comes from their upbringing, which is determined by income. i'm sorry if this is out of your scope of reason, but crime has a lot to do with racism. somewhere in ted's (or whoever) rant was that 70% of crime is committed by blacks. people see that and make generalizations about blacks, when it's not a race issue, it's an income issue.
yes there are some motivated minorities that make their way out of the bad parts of cities. there are also a lot of people who stay there because that's all they can do with what they have. what you're saying is that it's their own fault they live in poverty, when there are tons of rich white kids who don't try, but still are able to stay exactly where they are without doing a thing, while a minority would have to work his ass off his entire life to get that chance. this does not sound like equal opportunity to me.