Obama Opposes Colorblindness, Supports Preferences

Sen. Obama has reassured pro-preference columnist DeWayne Wickham that he has not wavered in his support for racial preferences.

“In response to a question I put to him,” Wickham writes,

Obama answered that he opposes efforts to pass constitutional amendments this year in Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska to ban affirmative action in state contracting and college admissions.

“Sen. Obama believes in a country in which opportunity is available to all Americans, regardless of their race, gender or economic status. That’s why he opposes these ballot initiatives, which would roll back opportunity for millions of Americans and cripple efforts to break down historic barriers to the progress of qualified women and minorities,” Candice Tolliver, an Obama campaign spokesperson, told me.

I think I’ve got it now. Obama The Biracial wants to transcend race and bring us all together, values he imbibed while sitting passively in Rev. Wright’s pews for 20 years listening to Farrakhanian sermons on the evils of Amerikka and the greedy whites who run it. Since he believes in equal opportunity for all Americans without regard to their race, gender, or class, he opposes barring the state from distributing benefits and burdens based on race.

This makes perfect sense because, as Wickham assures us,

Obama believes America can keep its promise to women and blacks without dashing the hopes of working-class whites. He doesn’t think opportunity guarantees made to one group must come at the expense of another.

Ward Connerly emails that Obama should tell that to the thousands of Asian kids denied admission to UC Berkeley prior to the passage of 209 so that lesser qualified black and Latino kids could be admitted, and to white contractors prevented from bidding on jobs set aside for women and minorities. I’m sure Obama will tell them exactly that, in beautifully crafted speeches. The only question is whether or not McCain will disagree with him, pointing out that on this issue the would be emperor is wearing no clothes.

If working-class whites and Asians agree with Obama that preferences to blacks and Latinos do not come at their expense, if McCain does not engage Obama directly on his equality doublespeak, they they will all deserve to have Obama as president.

ADDENDUM [11 June]

I can’t stop thinking about this remarkable statement of belief, or faith, already quoted but worth quoting again:

Obama believes America can keep its promise to women and blacks without dashing the hopes of working-class whites. He doesn’t think opportunity guarantees made to one group must come at the expense of another.

Yes, but what about the hopes of Asians and middle-class whites — is it O.K. to dash them? Or has Obama perhaps discovered some heretofore unknown tenet of moral philosophy according to which it is possible to treat some individuals better because of their race, ethnicity, or gender without necessarily treating other individuals worse because of their race, ethnicity, or gender? Or maybe it’s a new math he’s found, according to which zero-sum games (as selective admissions and competitive employment decisions are under the current math) really aren’t zero-sum after all. If so, I look forward eagerly to hearing his exposition of it.