Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Commentary Blogs -> Discriminations

Legal Commentary

: Discriminations

Obama Attempts To Clarify His Stance On Race Preferences

Regular readers will know that I have criticized Obama?s various pronouncements on affirmative action as waffling obfuscation, muddled, lacking any commitment to his own announced vision, to name a few of my reservations.

Thus I was quite interested in his attempt at clarifying his views last night in the Philadelphia debate with Sen. Clinton.

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Obama, last May we talked about affirmative action, ad you said at the time that affluent African Americans like your daughters should probably be treated as pretty advantaged when they apply to college, and that poor white children -- kids -- should get special consideration, affirmative action.

So, as president, how specifically would you recommend changing affirmative action policies so that affluent African Americans are not given advantages, and poor, less affluent whites are?

SENATOR OBAMA: Well, I think that the basic principle that should guide discussions not just on affirmative action but how we are admitting young people to college generally is, how do we make sure that we?re providing ladders of opportunity for people? How do we make sure that every child in America has a decent shot in pursuing their dreams?

And race is still a factor in our society. And I think that for universities and other institutions to say, you know, we?re going to take into account the hardships that somebody has experienced because they?re black or Latino or because they?re women --

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if they?re wealthy?

SENATOR OBAMA: I think that?s something that they can take into account, but it can only be in the context of looking at the whole situation of the young person. So if they look at my child and they say, you know, Malia and Sasha, they?ve had a pretty good deal, then that shouldn?t be factored in. On the other hand, if there?s a young white person who has been working hard, struggling, and has overcome great odds, that?s something that should be taken into account.

So I still believe in affirmative action as a means of overcoming both historic and potentially current discrimination, but I think that it can?t be a quota system and it can?t be something that is simply applied without looking at the whole person, whether that person is black or white or Hispanic, male or female.

What we want to do is make sure that people who have been locked out of opportunity are going to be able to walk through those doors of opportunity in the future.

Well, I?m glad we finally got that cleared up.

For those of you who are still not sure you?ve got a firm grip on Obama?s opposition to/support for racial preferences, you might re-take the quiz I suggested you take after reading his equally clarifying interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here?s the quiz, as relevant now as then:

1. Does Obama believe it is wrong to burden some and benefit others because of their race? Always? Usually? Sometimes? Never?

2. Are ?qualities such as leadership, motivation, teamwork, and ability to effectively communicate? found primarily among disadvantaged blacks? If race were not a factor, would placing more weight on those qualities increase the proportion of blacks who are admitted to selective colleges?

3. How can affirmative action programs that treat race in a preferential manner be ?properly structured? so that they give additional opportunities to blacks without ?without diminishing opportunities for white [or Asian] students??

4. What is the nature of the ?diversity? provided by blacks and Latinos in math and science, and why is it important?

5. How would ?a scholarship program for minorities interested in getting advanced degrees in these fields ... broaden the pool of talent that we need to prosper in the new economy? more than a scholarship program that was not racially restrictive? If such a program were racially restrictive, why would it not ?keep white [and Asian] students out of such programs? who could not attend without a scholarship?

6. Does Obama believe [as I?ve already asked, here and here] that all minority applicants who, like his daughters, ?are pretty advantaged? should receive no preferential treatment?

7. Would Obama award preferences to those ?who are still struggling, ... who are in the middle class [but] may be first-generation as opposed to fifth- or sixth-generation college attendees? only if they are ?African-American kids,? or would he ?take into account? those facts equally for all applicants, regardless of their race?

8. In short, does Obama support or oppose preferences based on race? If he opposes them, why did he make ads opposing their abolition in Michigan?
   

I?m afraid that what I said then is also still relevant:

Done? Good. Now you?ll have to grade your own quizzes, since I don?t know the correct answers.

UPDATE

Mickey Kaus, uncharacteristically, gets this one wrong, reading far more ?pivot?-possibility into what Obama said than is there and ignoring Obama?s similarly obfuscating earlier comments. He would like to promote ?triangulation? by engineering criticism of Obama?s allegedly flexible new position from both Jesse Jackson and Ward Connerly.

I?m no Ward Connerly, but ... see the above and links contained therein.

Full post as published by Discriminations on April 17, 2008 (boomark / email).