Birds of a Feather ... (Eric Holder wants more affirmative action)

Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, is unfailingly polite, mild-mannered, and soft-spoken. Thus I was shocked when I received an email from him today that uncharacteristically SHOUTED his nearly incredulous response to comments in a “scandalous” interview of Attorney General Holder by Columbia University president (and former University of Michigan chief preference pusher) Lee Bollinger: “So,” Roger asked, “preferences FOREVER then? And racial preferences have not even STARTED yet?”

Eager to see what had set him off, I rushed to look at the offending interview, and this is what I found:

One of Bollinger’s questions concerned the United States Supreme Court’s decision earlier this week to reconsider affirmative action. Bollinger was involved in defending affirmative action when the court declared it constitutional in a landmark 2003 case, and he said on Thursday that the court’s decision to revisit the issue is “ominous.”

Holder expressed support for affirmative action, saying that he “can’t actually imagine a time in which the need for more diversity would ever cease.”

“Affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices,” Holder said. “The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin … When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?”

He added that as a Columbia student, he “saw diversity and interacted with people who had different views.”

“People come from so many different backgrounds and bring so many different perspectives that the study of contemporary civilization is enriched by those people,” he said.

Wow. First, let me say that Roger, despite his rather mild incredulous shout, was too polite. Holder’s comments are contemptible, and as such are nicely revealing of contemporary liberal and Democratic views on race preferences. Let’s take a close look at them.

Holder “can’t actually imagine a time in which the need for more diversity would ever cease.” This I can easily believe, since it’s evident Holder has little or no imagination and really does desire permanent racial preferences for those he recently referred to as “my people.” “Affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices.” This is simply nonsense. Affirmative action emerged as a contentious issue only in the 1970s. “The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin … When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?” So, a black Ivy League college and law school graduate appointed Attorney General by another black Ivy League college (Columbia, like Holder) and law school graduate defines affirmative action as blacks getting “the benefits to which they are entitled,” but doesn’t believe that has even started yet? He obviously believes his grandchildren, if he has any, deserve preferential treatment because of their race. Perhaps in his next career Holder can be a stand-up comedian. … as a Columbia student, [Holder] “saw diversity and interacted with people who had different views.” I’ll have more to say about Holder’s use of his own experience in a moment, but here I’ll limit myself to acknowledging how fortunate his fellow Columbia students must have felt to have had the opportunity to be exposed to Holder and his own “different views.” “People come from so many different backgrounds and bring so many different perspectives that the study of contemporary civilization is enriched by those people.” Well, yes, people with different backgrounds do often bring different perspectives, but who are “those people”? Do only “diverse” people enrich study? Makes them sound like the spice added to an otherwise bland soup. Exotic. Hot. “Different.” As a graduate of New York City’s highly selective Stuyvesant High School Holder would more than likely have been admitted to Columbia even in the absence of affirmative action, but neither he nor we can be sure of that. Some Stuyvesant grads, after all, are no doubt turned down by Columbia from time to time. In any event, because he believes “his people” deserve preferential treatment, he quite clearly would think it his due if he had been admitted to Columbia and Columbia Law School because of his race, thereby displacing another applicant — probably Asian but possibly white — who would have been accepted but for his or her race.

Thus I think it not only in order but relevant to reprise what I wrote here about another Columbia Law School graduate, Theodore Shaw, former general counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, who offered his own success as evidence of the goodness of racial preference. (And see here for a response by Shaw and my reply.)

"Why is it that blacks make up only some 13% of the US population, but some 17% of government employees?"

My belief is that the 17% you cite may be way low because of this administrations propensity for widespread arrogant and open discrimination against "Caucasians" in all areas of government employment. Their "chickens have come home to roost" already with numerous mistakes being made in the most simplistic areas of management. Unqualified individuals are being hired on an affirmative action basis and not on a standard of the most qualified.

Originally affirmative action jobs were supposed to last until the blacks who were going to segregated schools came into the integrated school system and caught up intellectually with whites.

Instead we have seen the lowered standards of these schools.
We have seen lowered standards for hiring.

We have not seen blacks come up to the standard of the white student we see the standards of white student going down. We have poured money into this problem with no improving results.

Meanwhile white kids cannot wear a baseball cap correctly nor keep their pants up where they belong. and the MF word has become viral with male and female students.

Affirmative action will always be needed to keep blacks into any kind of equal footing with white hires.They know it and we know it. A few blacks have realized this and complain that a stigma of black inferiority goes along with affirmative action,and they are correct.Unfortunately nothing can be done about it until the average black family stops blaming everything on whitey and learns that education and a work ethic is the only thing that can bring them on board without affirmative action.Blacks are not lacking in intelligence, only in attitude.Equalty is there for any who will accept that hard work is the way to it.

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