Discriminations

On ABC News’s “This Week,” broadcast Sunday, Sen. Barack Obama seemed to trim Sandra Day O’Connor’s 25 year extension for affirmative action.

On affirmative action, Obama, a Harvard Law School graduate, said he thinks that someday when his two young daughters apply to college, they “should probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged” and there is nothing wrong with that.

Since Obama’s two daughters were born in 1999 and 2001, he seems comfortable with (well, make that “probably” comfortable with) the demise of racial preferences well before Justice O’Connor’s prediction (hope? limit?) of 25 years.

Left unasked and unanswered, however, was whether he believes it is fair for black college or job applicants who are as “advantaged” as his daughers should receive preferences today and tomorrow and next year, etc., because of their race (or the race, to keep the Obama comparison, of one of their grandparents).

Still, Obama distanced himself farther from racial preferences than any other Democratic presidential candidate I’ve heard:

“I think that we 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,” he added. “There are a lot of African-American kids who are still struggling.”

Obama said that “if we have done what needs to be done to ensure that kids who are qualified to go to college can afford it, that [then?] affirmative action becomes a diminishing tool for us to achieve racial equality in this society.”

He seems to be saying that a helping hand should be extended to those who have “struggled ... [and] who have what it takes to succeed” on the basis of their ability, not on the basis of their race. If so, there are few if any critics of racial preference who would disagree.

ADDENDUM

The New York Times reported these comments as follows:

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr. Obama, a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, said affirmative action programs should ultimately become “a diminishing tool for us to achieve racial equality in this society.”

Asked if his two young daughters should benefit from those programs when they apply to college, he said they should be treated “as folks who are pretty advantaged.”

“I think that we 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,” Mr. Obama said. He added, “There are a lot of African-American kids who are still struggling — even those who are in the middle class may be first-generation as opposed to fifth- or sixth-generation college attendees, and that we all have an interest in bringing as many people together to help build this country.”

Since Sen. Obama’s older daughter was born in 1999, she will presumably be applying to college in about 10 years. If racial preferences will have become a “diminishing tool” by then, that would be a good deal sooner than “ultimately.”

UPDATE [15 May]

For an entirely different argument, listen to what Sen. Obama had to say in urging, unsuccessfully, the defeat of Proposition 2 in Michigan. (HatTip to Jennifer Gratz)