Trump voters are gonna love this! This is a classic – right up there with “Why isn’t there a white history month?” nonsense. Sadly, it won’t only be Trump supporters agreeing with this. I’ve heard far too many white people toss out affirmative action as an excuse for why their little Einstein didn’t get into the school of their choice.
Via NYT:
The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.
The document, an internal announcement to the civil rights division, seeks current lawyers interested in working for a new project on “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.”
The announcement suggests that the project will be run out of the division’s front office, where the Trump administration’s political appointees work, rather than its Educational Opportunities Section, which is run by career civil servants and normally handles work involving schools and universities.
The document does not explicitly identify whom the Justice Department considers at risk of discrimination because of affirmative action admissions policies. But the phrasing it uses, “intentional race-based discrimination,” cuts to the heart of programs designed to bring more minority students to university campuses.
We know exactly who Trump and the GOP considers at risk of discrimination. Exhibit A: Abigail Fisher.
It’s true that the university, for whatever reason, offered provisional admission to some students with lower test scores and grades than Fisher. Five of those students were black or Latino. Forty-two were white.
Neither Fisher nor Blum mentioned those 42 applicants in interviews. Nor did they acknowledge the 168 black and Latino students with grades as good as or better than Fisher’s who were also denied entry into the university that year.
Everyone get that? Fisher and Blum only had a problem with the five black and Latino students, not the 42 white students who were offered admission over her. I could actually stop writing here, because my point is made. The only person demanding special treatment was mediocre student, Abigail Fisher. She deserved to get into UT because… well, according to her, just because. (Actually, the truth is she had mediocre grades and subpar SAT scores, but who cares about facts!)
Get ready for another Supreme Court case! (This time we’ll have Gorsuch!) Remember the comments from our justices last time?
Antonin Scalia: “There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a less — a slower-track school where they do well.
One of the briefs pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don’t come from schools like the University of Texas. They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they’re — that they’re being pushed ahead in — in classes that are too — too fast for them.”
Alito: “It’s kind of the assumption that if the—if a student—if a black student or a Hispanic student is admitted as part of the top 10-percent plan, it has to be because that student didn’t have to compete against very many whites and— and Asians.”
Stunning.
Anyway, just wanted to give you a refresher course on what’s about to come our way again. We’ll be subject to more sad stories from mediocre white kids. And never forget: Fisher and Blum only had a problem with the five black and Latino students, not the 42 white students who were offered admission over her. Why is that?
This is Trump and the GOP’s world. Sorry, but it’s all about political correctness identity politics Civil Rights. It’s what Trump specifically (it was the only part of his policy he provided specifics on, btw) ran on. It’s what Republicans always run on. It’s not a coincidence that he’s going after the LGBTQ community, immigration, affirmative action, telling police to rough up suspects, etc.. This is exactly why people voted for him. I wouldn’t be the least surprised if his poll numbers increased over this affirmative action move.
Shorter Trump: “I see white people.”
So, I thought it was Democrats who were too focused on social issues.
Either this will be labeled a “distraction” or Dems will pronounce that there’s no litmus test on affirmative action. It’s how we roll now.
‘Clegg elaborated, with a hollow and incendiary talking point, “The civil rights laws were deliberately written to protect everyone from discrimination, and it is frequently the case that not only are whites discriminated against now, but frequently Asian-Americans are as well.”
We’re watching history in the making. (We saw this with the Irish, Italians, etc. decades ago) Asians are being welcomed in the “white” category.
As Pandora points out, they have always rolled this way. Where your analysis consistently fails to explain is why white resentment lost twice to Obama, the actual black guy, but defeated Hillary.
Well no. I’ve spilled a great deal of ink talking about this. You can’t quite release either enough of your privilege or your misogyny to engage with that explanation. Lots of polling and poll analysis has been released on this too — which I have posted and talked about. There’s plenty of data. Plenty of explanation.
Why do you insist on talking about this in a vacuum? There are a lot of moving pieces. Obama won, in part, because we were hemorrhaging jobs, the Iraq war was a complete disaster and the American people no longer supported it, Katrina, etc.. Republicans ran McCain, viewed as not a conservative by the base – and a staunch supporter of surging in Iraq. However, the writing was on the wall when he picked Palin and the base went nuts. That was a big hint as to what was brewing. Then they ran Romney, another “moderate” and a Mormon – the religious right had a big ol’ problem with that. The base wasn’t happy so they stayed home. Basically, McCain and Romney weren’t rabid enough. My guess (since we’re both guessing) is that Trump would have won in 2012 if he had run.
White resentment existed with Obama. Bigly. In fact, Trump’s win, imo, had just as much, if not more, to do with Obama than Hillary. Republicans just didn’t run candidates that addressed that resentment. Imagine if they had. (Hey, they were running classes on how not to talk about rape, tho. Bet the base loved that!) So it isn’t as simple as, “Welp, the black guy won.” The mantra of the GOP base was “not conservative enough” and that had nothing to do with the economy.
Right. White resentment was what was on offer with Trump and he kept telling people it was OK to indulge in that. He was the guy to put these others in their place.
“Then they ran Romney, another “moderate” and a Mormon – the religious right had a big ol’ problem with that. The base wasn’t happy so they stayed home.” – pandora
What the base was really unhappy about Romney was his history as a Bain Capital parasite; resulting in thousands of Americans thrown out of work. In the words of John Oliver: “Everything about him tells the tale of the guy who laid off your dad”. But he still had a slight lead in the polls until he was caught on camera expressing his contempt for “47%” of the American people, …who should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
So Barack Obomba owes much to Romney for Obomba’s second term.
those same people voted for Dump, who did the same things. Seriously dude, you’re not making leftist radicals look very informed.
White resentment AND democrats like Bill Nelson and Tom Carper driving the Dem base away caused the disaster in 2010. If The corporate dems hadn’t screwed up Obama’s progressive agenda, the Tea party wouldnt have been half of what it was. They got the racists with no issue, but what they also got were the people who dont care about racist…. privileged whites who aren’t hostile, but who also are too selfish to care about urban areas, or minority populations anywhere. They were promised riches of thye sold out their fellow citizens.
Dems could have improved those people’s lives AND AT THE SAME TIME, brought forward social equality legislation. They made it a choice.
They need to win back those non-hostile, yet uncaring fly-over country dwellers. They dont have to do it by doing things like allowing anti-choice dems to run…. but I’m certain they will.
On another Dems-want-to-lose note… I saw Booker’s blatant Bernie-fan pander by introducing MJ legalization. I predict he is the one who will lose to Trump. Democrats raise more money when they are in the minority. Why on earth would they want to screw that up?
Yes! The Tea Party (thanks, Ben, for triggering my memory!) – which formed approx. 2 seconds after Obama was elected in 2008! – was a big indicator of what was coming. Hell, they won in Congress in 2010 on Trump’s message.
First time i have ever been thanked for triggering someone. 🙂