Kerry On Affirmative Action

In last night’s debate:

1. Kerry says he opposes quotas…

During the Clinton years, as you may recall, there was a fight over affirmative action. And there were many people, like myself, who opposed quotas, who felt there were places where it was overreaching. So we had a policy called “Mend it, don’t end it.” We fixed it.

2. … But supports minority “set-asides”:

I served on the Small Business Committee for a long time. I was chairman of it once. Now I’m the senior Democrat on it. We used to — you know, we have a goal there for minority set-aside programs, to try to encourage ownership in the country.

Perhaps Kerry hasn’t attended enough Small Business Committee meetings to learn that set-asides are quotas — a certain percentage of contracts are set aside/limited to minority contractors.

Bush, in my opinion, missed an enormous opportunity here to say that he favors affirmative action as it was put forward in executive orders by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, both of which required government contractors to

take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin [emphasis added].

Kerry and friends have perverted that original understanding and turned it on its head. To them, affirmative action means requiring that everyone be treated differently based on their race.

Say What? (2)

  1. John S Bolton October 15, 2004 at 1:47 am | | Reply

    The taking of positive action, as distinct from the negative action of forbidding special racial favor or disfavor, implies that the idea is to get some kind of edge for some group on a racial (likewise ethnic or religious) basis. If not so, how would the negative action of not using such disaffinities be insufficient?

  2. Makaveli October 19, 2004 at 8:06 am | | Reply

    What has America ever done for black people?

Say What?