Does it constitute progress that we have moved from state mandated racial discrimination to state mandated affirmative racial discrimination? Yes, it probably does.
The different motivations probably do have some moral significance. It is good that we have put behind us the mindset that motivated slavery and Jim Crow apartheid and that there is an honest desire to own up to that history. But that does not make affirmative discrimination right morally speaking - just because it may be motivated by good intentions. [I leave aside the self-serving hypocrisy associated with it.] After all if racial discrimination is morally wrong how can affirmative racial discrimination be morally right? It operates the same way and hurts innocent people. It is not only wrong, it is very wrong.
This conclusion is substantially reinforced by the fact that such attempts to use group discrimination to remedy past sins ends up not eliminating prejudice and discrimination but perpetuating it. It is horribly counterproductive and is a significant part of our current identity politics pathology.