Euphemizing Affirmative Action

National Review ^ | 4/27/2014 | George Will

[Servant of the Cross]

Anodyne euphemisms often indicate an uneasy conscience or a political anxiety. Or both, as when the 1976 Democratic platform chose

[Servant of the Cross]

"As Justice Harlan observed over a century ago, “Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” "

The court’s continuing fissures regarding “race-sensitive” policies — six justices used four opinions to reach the result — indicate that Harlan’s principle remains too clear for the comfort of a court still too fond of euphemisms. That is shameful.

[Servant of the Cross]

0bama/Holder turn Justice Harlan’s Constitutional truth on its head - everything thing they do is about creating “classes” among our citizens.

[Rapscallion]

Race-based, gender-based, nationality-based they are all bad ideas. Let the campus accept only the applicants with the best academic performance and SAT scores.

[sportutegrl]

"Affirmative Action" is itself a euphemism. The problem with euphemisms is that eventually people figure out what they are talking about and you have to get a new one:

Crippled - Handicapped - Physically Challenged - Differently-Abled;

Retarded - Mentally Challenged - Special.

[FrdmLvr]

Initially I read it as Euthanizing Affirmative Action.

[driftless2]

Affirmative Discrimination is the more correct phrase. And by their attempts to give “people of color” extra bennies, the race hustlers make a mockery of the constitution wherein there is no mention of special classes of Americans.

[I want the USA back]

By calling it “affirmative action” they got away with racist preferences for years, while the American public kept its head up its a$$.

[kearnyirish2]

“By calling it “affirmative action” they got away with racist preferences for years, while the American public kept its head up its a$$.”

Those racial preferences were well-known for years; too many whites (particularly women, who benefited from it) found it acceptable and voted for its supporters. Now the daughters of those women can’t find suitable husbands in part because their menfolk have been marginalized economically, and they live in a world where they are increasingly surrounded by darker children speaking in foreign tongues.

Hope the token jobs were worth it; affirmative action has always been nothing but an acknowledgment by the government that blacks, Hispanics, and women are genetically inferior to white and Asian men.