Almost Colorblind

Derrick Z. Jackson, a columnist for the Boston Globe who, as I mentioned here, “has never seen a racial preference (for minorities), that he dislikes,” all of a sudden has almost turned colorblind. I’m referring to his recent column on Deval Patrick’s strong campaign for Attorney General Governor in Massachusetts.

I know Patrick has never met a racial preference he disliked; see here and here. In that latter post I quoted Jeffrey Rosen of The New Republic, who wrote that Patrick’s brief (he has Assistant Attorney General for Civl Rights) in the Piscataway case (described in my post)

committed the Clinton administration to a vision of racial preference that fulfills the most extravagant fantasies of a conservative attack ad. (“You lost that job because you were white….”) Rather than honestly confronting the costs of affirmative action, Patrick has blithely endorsed the most extreme form of racialism. (The New Republic, Oct. 17, 1994, p. 25)

Anyway, now that Patrick is running for statewide office he’s become more circumspect in his racial views. As described by the fawning Jackson,

In a recent interview on CBS4, Patrick said about his being a black candidate, “For some, it’s a plus, for others it’s a detraction. For most people it’s a thing.” For Massachusetts to have a race where color may be just a thing, that is a very big thing.

Here’s an idea: let’s build on Patrick’s and Jackson’s new belief in “Sweeping Race Out The Door” and apply it everywhere. Let’s make sure that in college admissions, employment — indeed, everywhere — race is not a plus, race is not a detraction, race is “just a thing.”

I think that’s just the thing.