I'm not sure why you keep talking about Asians here. Werepossum makes a good point, AA targets demographics that are underperforming. FWIW, college racial make up is in-line with population demographics. This means all races are being equally represented. This is great news.
I'd like to take this opportunity to ask what is merit? Is it a numerical score? Depends on the mission of the university. If a university only looked at SAT/ACT and transcripts then they could fill their schools with a homogenous group, but most don't want that. The mission statement of many universities is not just to round up everyone with the high scores because that is not representative of the country or the world and it misses the creativity and insight that new world perspectives can bring to higher education. Here is Harvard's mission statement:
Having a diverse and well rounded student body is key to their mission, so the application process reflects that. This is what "holistic" means. Its a pulled back view of the applicant and what they have to offer, not just data from their HS or test scores.
Hypothetical people aren't what these programs target. That sounds like a great inspirational story, but for the vast majority of poor/undereducated minorities that is a fantasy. A kid with their dad in jail and their mom on crack is more worried about eating than studying for the ACT/SAT. I'd be surprised if "Tyrone" ever graduated high school.
However, is it fair that Tyrone worked so damn hard but some white suburban kid with the perfect life scored 1 point higher, so he gets to slide into school over Tyrone? That is why scores do not truly reflect the applicant's merit and the admissions team will take into account Tyrone's story, his letters of recommendation, and his determination. The school's outreach program may have gotten Tyrone to apply where he may not have. That is the power of AA.
Which is why I need to reiterate what AA is. I already said arbitrarily adding points to a minority applicant is disallowed, quotas are disallowed, and using race as a tiebreaker is disallowed. Most AA programs use outreach to meet their diversity targets. The more minority applications they get the bigger the pool they have to choose from compared to overrepresented races. This just means whites and asians have more competition.