Stephanopoulos zeroed in on one such issue when he asked Obama, “How, specifically, would you recommend changing affirmative-action policies so that affluent African-Americans are not given advantages, and poor, less affluent whites are?”Obama’s vague response was seen by Mickey Kaus, Slate’s astute blogger, as expanding on an earlier hint that the candidate might come out for ending racial affirmative-action preferences while supporting special consideration for people of any race who have shown promise by overcoming poverty or other hardships.
Such a move would be popular with independent voters: Polls have consistently shown overwhelming opposition to the racial preferences that have become entrenched in university admissions and government employment and contracting, among other walks of life. An Obama call for ending racial preferences would also, in my view, be good both for racial harmony and for most African-Americans. The current racial-preference regime stigmatizes those “beneficiaries” who could succeed without special treatment, sets up some others for failure, and does nothing at all for the disadvantaged.
A good read
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