Affirmative Action?

In 1978 there was the Supreme Court ruling for affirmative action. Then in 2003 a group of University of Michigan Law School applicants brought a case to Supreme Court about this same ruling.
What is affirmative action?
It could be defined as giving a little more weight to minorities, so that they have a better chance of getting in, but what does this "minority" include.
Obviously there is the racial minority, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans, that this applied to, but what about the minorities in the social ladder? There are poor people in the U.S. that are not part of the racial minority.

Does that mean that they aren't included?
Well that's what it seems. Being part of this lovely class that is close to poverty I don't feel like I am being pushed up the line to get into any college. Out of 9 schools that I applied to I got into 1. ]
There are people in the world that live in poverty, that work their asses off to get good grades, and graduate from high school. Are they noticed? Are they taken into account? I'm not sure.
All I know is that it feels like some things should be left alone. Then again, if they were it could change the future of the economics of the country we live in.