> What bugs me about this is that the people who would have benefit from these policies, such as my ancestors, are long dead and gone.
The people who directly benefited (or suffered) from de jure discrimination by race in the US aren't even dead and gone -- there are people alive today that were adults when those policies existed -- much less the people that indirectly benefited by way of, e.g., having an advantage (resp., disadvantage) in opportunity because their parents wealth/education/etc. was directly influenced by those policies.
The people who directly benefited (or suffered) from de jure discrimination by race in the US aren't even dead and gone -- there are people alive today that were adults when those policies existed -- much less the people that indirectly benefited by way of, e.g., having an advantage (resp., disadvantage) in opportunity because their parents wealth/education/etc. was directly influenced by those policies.