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Clarence Thomas On Affirmative Action Today...

It is not news that Clarence Thomas opposes affirmative action, but he does seem to be even more outspoken about it now.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Tuesday that African-Americans are better served by colorblind programs than affirmative action.

Thomas, addressing leaders of historically black colleges, said affirmative action ?has become this mantra and there almost has become this secular religiosity about it. I think it almost trumps thinking.?

Almost?

?My suggestion would be to stop the buzz words and to focus more on the practical effect of what we?re doing,? he said Tuesday.

?I can tell you when you have fudge words, it leaves a lot of room for mischief,? he said. ?People have a tendency to read their personal opinions into fudge words. You want, when it comes to the issue of race, absolute words.?

Absolutely!

ADDENDUM

Regarding ?absolute words? vs. ?fudge words,? consider the following dramatic finding from a recent Rasmussen survey:

During his acceptance speech last night at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota, John McCain told the audience, ?We believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life, personal responsibility, the rule of law, and judges who dispense justice impartially and don't legislate from the bench.? Most American voters (60%) agree and say the Supreme Court should make decisions based on what is written in the constitution, while 30% say rulings should be guided [by] the judge?s sense of fairness and justice. The number who agree with McCain is up from 55% in August.

While 82% of voters who support McCain believe the justices should rule on what is in the Constitution, just 29% of Barack Obama?s supporters agree. Just 11% of McCain supporters say judges should rule based on the judge?s sense of fairness, while nearly half (49%) of Obama supporters agree.

No doubt Obama himself is clearly one of those 49%. Recall his clearly stated criteria for selecting judges:

In explaining his vote against Roberts, Obama opined that deciding the ?truly difficult? cases requires resort to ?one?s deepest values, one?s core concerns, one?s broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one?s empathy.? In short, ?the critical ingredient is supplied by what is in the judge?s heart.... We need somebody who?s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it?s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it?s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old ? and that?s the criterion by which I?ll be selecting my judges.

Obama is a virtual fudge word factory.

Full post as published by Discriminations on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).