Anecdotal evidence as an Asian male: way back when I was in high school, I applied to a particular brand name university in the US. In my class, I had the best or second best admissions profile. The rest weren't really even close.

I was not accepted by this university, but fellow students from much more desirable demographic groups (from an affirmative action perspective) were. They were all wealthy, quite possibly from wealthier families than my own. And they had different skin color and/or gender.

These were students who couldn't even handle AP calculus (and if you knew the name of this university, you'd be shocked), let alone match my extracurricular activities, test scores, etc.

One of them had enough self awareness and integrity to apologize to me, and openly blamed affirmative action for her being accepted instead of me.

The others let it get to their heads.