A colleague of mine was the top student in his high school. He found himself below average at CalTech. Imagine the adjustment one has to make in order to work so hard just to get a "C".
I recall hearing some years ago that a top STEM university had 7000 applications for graduate school with only 1000 openings. There simply was no room whatever for students who were not prepared to do the work.
The proper role for supporters of affirmative action would be to focus on helping their chosen candidates qualify given the qualifications already established by the universities.
If you help the AA students qualify ,that means work...Rioting,stealing,grade inflation is sooooo much easier