Affirmative action is not reverse discrimination because, definitionally, to repair the effects of unfair treatment based on morally irrelevant characteristics (i.e. Discrimination), it is necessary that these same characteristics be invoked in the remedy, and necessarily in a 'morally relevant' manner (i.e. Definitionally non-discriminatory manner).
Affirmative action is a policy that is harmful to all involved. Whites lose out by not getting in, and blacks and hispanics lose out by being put in a situation where they are likely to fail.
Affirmative action is historical justice in that it aims to offset the fact that there has been a whole set of informal affirmative actions for white males (exclusive clubs, associations, ivy league schools) where important business is transacted to the benefit of the members and to the exclusion of people who are not.

Affirmative action is wrongheaded, as exemplified by Malaysia where despite pushing it for years, it has done nothing for the poor melees and no sees them worse off.
Affirmative action has caused such furor in this country and has gotten people, even allies, at each other's throats with no sense of a need to advance the empirical evidence to support what you've been doing.
Affirmative action is responsible for expanding the new black middle-class, but it does not really apply to the poor and working class for whom downsizing and de-industrializing is occurring.

Affirmative action is wrongheaded in that it makes people who are badly off worse off in the name of advancing them.
Affirmative action accounts for a profound change in a society arousing enormous patients across the board and the burden of proof for its success should be on those who think that this is beneficial.