Obama On Affirmative Action
Somehow, we missed this:
STEPHANOPOULOS: .... You've been a strong supporter of affirmative action...OBAMA: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: ... and you're a constitutional law professor,
so let's go back in the classroom. I'm your student, I say,
"Professor, you and your wife went to Harvard Law School. You've got
plenty of money. You're running for president. Why should your
daughters, when they go to college, get affirmative action?"OBAMA: Well, first of all, I think that my daughters should
probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty
advantaged, and I think that there's nothing wrong with us taking that
into account as we consider admissions policies at universities.I think that we should take into account white kids who have been
disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to
have what it takes to succeed.So I don't think those concepts are mutually exclusive. I think
what we can say is that in our society, race and class still
intersect, that there are a lot of African-American kids who are still
struggling, that 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.STEPHANOPOULOS: Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that in 25 years,
affirmative action may no longer be necessary. Is she right?OBAMA: I would like to think that if we make good decisions and
we invest in early childhood education, improve K-12, if we have done
what needs to be done to ensure that kids who are qualified to go to
college can afford it, that affirmative action becomes a diminishing
tool for us to achieve racial equality in this society.