How does "affirmative action" change attitudes? "Affirmative action" is a term that people use now when they are confronted with gross incompetence in office, not excepting the current occupant of the White House. There's a reason for this.
Sorry, from my perspective having lived through that process at a time when we had not given any thought to our biases, it made a difference for me after growing up in rural Utah where we had never been exposed to much.
Suddenly I was thrust into the mix as a young executive with Xerox Corporation in San Francisco in 1967. While it was forced upon us and while your point about incompetence is valid, my perspective started to change. We did meet our AA numbers and sometimes resented certain failures because we moved too fast. I also met new friends that I enjoyed knowing.