There’s no getting around the fact that “affirmative action” means lowering standards based on skin color or ethnicity.
"Lowering Standards" was not a part of the original deal. It merely worked out that way because of the shortage of qualified Affirmative Action candidates. The original deal was, "all other factors being equal, the break goes the minority candidate's way." That lasted about 45 minutes!
Also, Affirmative Action, or as our British Cousins more appropriately call it, "Positive Discrimination," was not supposed to be permanent. True, no one ever said when it would end, or what the criteria might be for that. But as originally conceived, it was supposed to eventually end. Whether it's "fair" or not in the first place is another story.
Overall, it has certainly been a disaster, as personified by the faux-POTUS. A short trip through your local Board of Education offices will prove that to you right quick. However, it has also done some (maybe a little) good. I have definitely met wonderfully capable and intelligent people who used it to get a leg up ... or that "first break."