Under questioning from reporters, Barack Obama said his two daughters should not be the beneficiaries of race-based affirmative action when they apply to colleges. They “should probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged,” he said, adding that affirmative action policies should "take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and been brought up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed."
Just as it took an ardent anti-communist like Richard Nixon to initiate detente with Soviet Russia and Red China without infuriating reactionaries on the right, it may take a President Barack Obama to end race-based affirmative action and instead institute need-based and class-based affirmative action without infuriating leftists.
Edward Blum of the conservative National Review wrote of "the unique opportunity" Obama's election as president would present. "No recent Democratic presidential aspirant has been as bold as Obama in discussing the problems with race-based affirmative action," he writes, quoting Obama as saying “an emphasis on universal, as opposed to race-specific, programs isn’t just good policy; it’s also good politics.”
"Beneath this extraordinary statement, coming as it does from a black, Democratic, presidential aspirant, lies a massive iceberg capable of transforming the nation’s racial policies — if he has the courage to pursue it."
Drill Deeper:
- Obama Opens Debate on Affirmative Action, by Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post Writers Group.
- Edward Blum on Barack Obama and Race on National Review Online
