Affirmative Action: Diversity vs. Compensatory Justice?

That's the issue raised, I take it, in this opinion piece by Senator Webb of Virginia, a white quasi-populist Democrat.  He ignores the possibility that affirmative action may sometimes operate as a remedy, or prophylactic, against current, conscious or unconscious discrimination.  But putting that to one side, it is interesting that the compensatory justice rationale for affirmative action (to compensate the victims of de jure and de facto discrimination, including the descendants of those victims) which loomed large in the 1960s and 1970s has, ever since the Supreme Court's 1978 decision in Bakke, given way to the "diversity" rationale, one that always seemed to me far less compelling and plausible.  In any case, what do readers think about the issues raised by Webb's piece?  Signed comments will be strongly preferred, but any submitted comment must have a valid e-mail address.   Comments will be moderated and/or edited for substance and relevance.