President-Elect Barack Obama has hinted at supporting some form of economic affirmative action. (Why the hint? He doesn’t want to commit!) During the campaign, he criticized John McCain for supporting the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, but said privileged children like his daughters didn’t need race preferences.
Although 51 percent of voters in Colorado rejected Amendment 46, a measure that would have put state and local governments out of the skin color business, 49 percent wanted to end racial discrimination and preferences. That’s a lot people. But 51 percent decided that Colorado may continue preferring one group over another.
Obama will have to face the issue of preferences sometime during his presidency. Perhaps he will propose replacing race and sex preferences with socioeconomic affirmative action, which would help people of all races and of both sexes. That would be a fair compromise, and it would avoid lowering standards for certain groups and discriminating against and essentially penalizing other groups.
Some believe the election of Barack Obama to the nation’s highest office signals the end of race-based preferences. I am not one of those people. As I’ve stated on this blog, humans will always look for the easy way out and put as little effort into improving themselves as possible. It’s much easier to point fingers, blame third parties, make excuses, and demand unearned benefits.
Maybe Obama can use his influence to get the ball rolling on a system to help the disadvantaged while keeping racial discrimination at bay. That’s the kind of change I can believe in!
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