The policy is not reverse discrimination. For many, it is the aid and balance, to minority persons and their needs, who have been under represented and kept down by institutions, both governmental and commercial, for the history of the US.
The American experiment at its foundation was freedom from harm and tyranny. Equality under the law and all that means. It, like many other institutions get corrupted by power and greed.
Every minority population and all women, have paid the price.
White males wrote most if not all the rules, and until everyone else gets a seat at the table and writes some of rules we will not know the true potential.
It took 15 generations to get here, hopefully it will not take 15 more to get out.