With the only way I've ever been able to successfully explain affirmative action as a step toward equal access to jobs - using the staggered start for races around a curved track.

The runners in the outer lanes have less centripetal forces to consume some of their energy. No correlation to AA.

which a number of people who are generally opposed to affirmative action seem to understand. Starting on a stagger looks unequal because some people appear to be given a head start, even though all the stagger really does is make the distances the same.

There are many reasons one ends up on an inner lane in life - education (personal and family), resources (family support, financial, etc.), race, gender, and so on. On sprints (the equivalent of an individual lifetime in the analogy), starting everyone at the same place (i.e. the picture on the left) would make it impossible (or at least much much harder) for those in an outer lane to compete because - even though it looks more equal - it actually requires them to run farther.