To add to your "calibration" framework: I sometimes explain the ethics of affirmative action in control theory terms as a kind of 'bang-bang' response[1]. So yes, things will be inequitable for the other side for a while, but you can't expect to efficiently correct longstanding historical inequities otherwise... Too bad it's this generation's "tag, you are it" moment to pay up for our forefathers' privilege, but that's just the way it is.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang–bang_control