Affirmative Action - A Thought

It's been going for 40 plus years. Supporters rarely make the claim it is working. In fact, often it is just the opposite: they say not enough progress on racial matters is being made. So then why should we continue affirmative action if it is so clearly not working or not working adequately? See my point? Either it has worked, and thus makes itself unnecessary, or it hasn't worked and we ought to try something else.

My instinct is that the time for it has come and gone and we should be moving away from such measures. If anything, it ought to be replaced with some type of component of socio-economic considerations (although that too will be problematic).