In the case of West point, the criteria for preferential admissions is going to be based on maintaining the number of officers who are black at 15% or so (to align military officer demographics with the general population). By and large there won’t be any actual action, they aren’t going to actively go looking for black people to enroll to add numbers. If there is an occasion where candidates are competing for seats, they will adjust preference to pursue their demographic targets. The standards won’t get lowered, it’s just a bias in competition among those who otherwise qualify.
In some cases, it ends up being a little different. It won’t be preference among similarly qualified people, it will be an active pursuit of getting a specific number of black people into seats, sometimes with no regard at all for other qualifications. The qualification for a seat becomes skin color. Essentially, the standard becomes inherently racist.
I don’t know exactly how affirmative action was implemented at Harvard or West point, but there’s a very real chance that West point will fare better in a lawsuit, because the merits of affirmative action aren’t fixed, it depends on how it’s implemented. It can be good, it can be racist. If a white guy needs a bunch of qualifications and a black guy just needs to show up with his melanin, that’s not cricket, but if both meet the qualifications (to a roughly equivalent degree) and you preference for a target demographic outcome (that roughly mirrors population demographics), thats completely sound and entirely laudable.
The devil’s in the details, as with most things. It’s not a black and white issue, despite the obvious :)