Posted on 01/19/2003 2:50:22 PM PST by TheRedSoxWinThePennant
In Rare Public Dissent, Powell Says He Disagrees With Bush on University of Michigan Affirmative Action Case By Scott Lindlaw Associated Press Writer Published: Jan 19, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday he disagrees with President Bush's position on an affirmative action case before the Supreme Court. Powell, one of two black members of Bush's Cabinet, said he supports methods the University of Michigan uses to bolster minority enrollments in its undergraduate and law school programs. The policies offer points to minority applicants and set goals for minority admissions.
"Whereas I have expressed my support for the policies used by the University of Michigan, the president, in looking at it, came to the conclusion that it was constitutionally flawed based on the legal advice he received," Powell said on the CBS program "Face the Nation."
It was a rare public acknowledgment of dissent with the president and with other top White House aides.
National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said she backed Bush's decision to step into the case before the Supreme Court and to argue that the University of Michigan's methods were unconstitutional. She said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that there are "problems" with the university's selection policies, and cited the points system.
But she also said race can be a factor in colleges' selection process. The brief the Bush administration filed with the Supreme Court was silent on that issue of whether race can be a factor under some circumstances.
"It is important to take race into consideration if you must, if race-neutral means do not work," she said.
Rice said she had benefited from affirmative action during her career at Stanford University.
"I think they saw a person that they thought had potential, and yes, I think they were looking to diversify the faculty," she said.
"I think there's nothing wrong with that in the United States," Rice said. "It does not mean that one has to go to people of lower quality. Race is a factor in our society."
In a speech to the Republican National Convention in 2000, Powell sharply criticized GOP attacks on affirmative action.
"We must understand the cynicism that exists in the black community," he said. "The kind of cynicism that is created when, for example, some in our party miss no opportunity to roundly and loudly condemn affirmative action that helped a few thousand black kids get an education, but you hardly heard a whimper from them over affirmative action for lobbyists who load our federal tax codes with preferences for special interests."
Sunday on CNN, Powell said he remained "a strong proponent of affirmative action."
Education Secretary Rod Paige is the other black member of Bush's Cabinet.
Paige firmly agrees with Bush's stance, a spokesman said Sunday.
"Secretary Paige believes in equal opportunity for all students and he fully supports President Bush's position on the University of Michigan case," said spokesman Dan Langan. He wasn't sure whether Paige agreed with Rice that race can sometimes be a factor in university admissions.
Bush, who drew 9 percent of the black vote in 2000, was attending a predominantly black church on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday.
AP-ES-01-19-03 1732EST
The School of Nursing thing is a cover (what, only 5 points?) to implement it to get women to enter the School of Engineering (and subsequently flunk out, but hey, we satisfied our quotas, right?).
Fact - race is a factor. Period. But quotas are not the way. She did not support quotas.
A purely "race-neutral" approach would not consider race at all. That would be fine if the colleges did not already factor in things like "applicant is a child of an alumnus." So - one could argue that only academic test scores should be used. Or academic test scores plus grades. But what about high school athletics? Club participation? How well the kid writes their essay? Maybe they have superlative musical skills? Etcetera. In the latter context, where all those other things are already being considered, then yes, ethnic background (not skin color) can reasonably be considered as "a factor". With NO QUOTAS being applied. And if it is dealt with like that, no constitutional issues apply.
Rice and Powell are wrong.
All those things you mentioned, as bad as they are, are race nuetral. And those factors are never considered as a means to the end of diversifying a student body anyway.
Maybe Rice didn't suggest diversfication would be the goal by considering race to be a factor, but it would be impossible let someone in because of race without denying someone else just because they aren;t the right color.
To tell someone just because they are the wrong ethnic background or wrong color that they are not allowed to attend then you are making an unconstitutional arguement.
Maybe Rice and Powell would like to speak to a group of white high school kids, in person, and tell them they might have to accept being denied admission to college because of their skin color or ethnic background.
DO THEY HAVE THE GUTS FOR THIS???
(1) We don't let in someone with lower academic scores over someone else because of their "athletic" background.
(2) We don't let in someone with lower academic scores over someone else because daddy was an alumnus.
(3) We don't let in someone with lower academic scores over someone else because they participated in a number of clubs and activities.
As far as I am concerned, all of those are equally as "bad" as wanting someone for their ethnic background.
I have already said that I am against quotas, and against choosing for or against people for skin color. But if a school is willing to accept applicants with lower test and grade scores on other factors, then it is hard to argue - well, those factors are okay but ethnicity is not.
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