Noted writer John Fund (who will be at CLC) has a new post on National Review Online suggesting that the era of racial preferences may be drawing to a close.
John Fund
First, racial preferences have lost political clout. In California, he writes, “liberals have long deplored the 1996 passage of Proposition 209, which banned racial preferences at state universities.” Democrats in the legislature planned to put up a referendum question on the fall ballot to repeal Prop. 209.
Asian-Americans were furious, because quota systems, however disguised, discriminate against them. Other voters also told lawmakers to keep their hands off Prop. 209. Democratic lawmakers had to back down and the plan was shelved. Even in liberal California, racial preferences don’t fly.
Nor do preferences have intellectual clout today. “The intellectual case for preferences is looking increasingly shaky. Last month, a packed auditorium at Harvard Law School featured an Intelligence Squared U.S. debate on whether ‘affirmative action does more harm than good,'” Fund wrote. Whatever appeal racial preferences have in theory, in the real world they hurt those they intend to help.
Check out the whole article. One conclusion from reading it: the day of special preferences for certain groups is over.
Fund writes on a wide variety of topics, and he’ll bring that expertise to Raleigh on Saturday, March 29 at our Conservative Leadership Conference, along with speakers such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation. To find out which CLC tickets are available, click here.
Leave a Comment