Warning: Rant to follow.

“I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. I think that his opinions are poorly written”. –Senate Democrat Minority Leader Harry Reid, referring to the only black US Supreme Court Justice

White liberal democrats are strong supporters of affirmative action. Not income based affirmative action, but race based affirmative action. Meaning that if you grew up in a rich neighborhood, with one parent who is a doctor and another a lawyer, but still the right race or ethnicity, you would be aided by affirmative action - not because of financial hardships, but simply because of your race or ethnicity.

In addition, affirmative action aids in a unique way. It is not like letting a friend sleep over when s/he doesn’t have a place to sleep, or giving a friend food, or tutoring, or paying for their tuition, no, affirmative action is more analogous to doing their homework for them, to letting them copy from a test - in other words, by giving certain races higher point scales than others, you take away some of their hard earned merit.

This might, and I stress might here, have been necessary in an age of heavy racism and jim crow laws, where affirmative action did represent a counterbalance to the many challenges minorities faced in entering universities. However, times have changed and today universities do far more to attract minorities, especially ‘underrepresented minorities’, than they do to repel them. This is evident to anybody who has spent more than a few months on any university campus. This radical change in times makes affirmative action become, where it once used to be seen as a counterbalance to the prevalent racism, nothing but handicap points, a few feet head start in the university race.

It is the (unconscious?) logical deduction of many years of supporting affirmative action and other race based policies that has led many white liberal democrats evolve to view minorities not as equally qualified, but as inferior, academically and intellectually. It is this view, for example, that leads many white liberal democrats to view Clarence Thomas as a ‘poorly written’ ‘embarrassment to the Supreme Court’, despite the fact that those who have studied his opinions, claim the very opposite.

This is what Walter Williams, a Black professor at George Mason University, meant when he wrote, in an article titled Conservatives, Liberals, and Blacks, that:

During the first Reagan administration, I participated in a number of press conferences on either a book or article I’d written or as a panelist in a discussion of White House public policy. On occasion, when the question-and-answer session began, I’d tell the press, “You can treat me like a white person. Ask hard, penetrating questions.” The remark often brought uncomfortable laughter, but I was dead serious. If there is one general characteristic of white liberals, it’s their condescending and demeaning attitude toward blacks.

According to a Washington Times story (July 14, 2004), Democratic hopeful Sen. John Kerry, in a speech about education to a predominantly black audience, said that there are more blacks in prison than in college.

“That’s unacceptable, but it’s not their fault,” he said. Do you think Kerry would also say that white inmates are faultless? Aside from Kerry being factually wrong about the black prison population vs. the black college population, his vision differs little from one that holds that blacks are a rudderless, victimized people who cannot control their destiny and whose best hope depends upon the benevolence of white people.

This is why news like this doesn’t suprise me:

Despite the Democratic Party’s historical ties to minorities, Capitol Hill Republicans are said to have a better reputation for hiring minorities.
According to a running joke one House staffer shared with The Times, “the only people who hire blacks and Hispanics around here are blacks, Hispanics and Republicans.”
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, New York Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, did not dispute the charge.
“I’ve heard it, and I’ve looked around and found myself scratching my head,” he said. “That has been said and it is a challenge for us to make sure our numbers are better.”

It doesn’t surprise me when the Democrat party does it, and it didn’t surprise me when Howard Dean or Michael Moore did it either. After all, minorities are useful when it is votes one is after, but serious business like running a campaign, making a movie, or doing real work, can’t be risked on those who are academically and intellectually challenged.

I’ve previously blogged more on this view of minorities by liberals here, here and here.