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Read the Fine Print, Condi Rice Supports Affirmative Action for Dumb White Men Like Her Boss
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Condi Rice, a high-profile Bush administration official (who just happens to be African-American -- "wink-wink, nod-nod") makes a carefully strategized statement that vaguely supports race being a potential consideration in college admissions, but, you got it, also fully backs the heavy-handed Bush Cartel brief challenging a University of Michigan system that includes race as a consideration among equally qualified candidates:
Rice issued a statement saying that she supports the president's decision to challenge race-conscious admissions as administered by the University of Michigan and that race-neutral means are preferable. But she said there are occasions when "it is appropriate to use race as one factor among others in achieving a diverse student body." (See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/articles/A8578-2003Jan17.html)
According to CNN (See: http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/17/rice.action/index.html), "The White House released a rare statement from Rice the same day that a story in "The Washington Post" credited her with taking a key role in helping to shape the Bush administration's decision to challenge the affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan."
Let's examine for the moment how the Bush Cartel lies as it tries to position the University of Michigan admissions process as a "quota" system, which it is anything but. The U of M doesn't admit unqualified blacks in order to achieve a certain percentage of minorities, which is what the Bush administration is implying because the use of the word "quota" is code-word race-baiting that gets the GOP closet racists all in a lather. The strategic use of the phrase "quota system" is one in a long line of Bush Cartel Neo-Confederacy code words, used to rev up the "Johnny Rebs," even when these inflammatory code words are completely dishonest. It is also used to set up class resentment among working class whites who believe that unqualified blacks and Hispanics are "stealing" their children's slots at state schools. In short, it is Bush cartel race-baiting.
The University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman directly disputes the notion that the University of Michigan implements or condones a quota system:
It is unfortunate that the President misunderstands how our admissions process works at the University of Michigan. It is a complex process that takes many factors into account and considers the entire background of each student applicant, just as the President urged.
We do not have, and have never had, quotas or numerical targets in either the undergraduate or Law School admissions programs. Academic qualifications are the overwhelming consideration for admission to both programs. (See: http://www.umich.edu/coleman.html)
But Bush, a white male prep school affirmative action admission at Yale, doesn't let truth get in the way of appeasing his Neo-Confederacy core group of voters.
The Chicago Tribune, in a January 18th front page story, argues that the Bush court filing in the University of Michigan case actually takes a much, much harsher stand than Bush is implying:
The White House has sought to present the president's position as moderate. Administration officials emphasized that the government's friend-of-the-court briefs would focus on the Michigan policies and not make the bold argument, as pushed by conservatives at the Justice Department, that affirmative action is unconstitutional.
But the briefs tell a different story. Although they do not explicitly say affirmative action is unconstitutional, their reasoning would force colleges and universities across the country to abandon their affirmative-action policies in favor of race-neutral approaches.
"It's cautious in its formal tone, but aggressive in legal arguments or legal scope," said Evan Caminker, a dean of the University of Michigan Law School. "And it's aggressive in its legal implications." (See: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld
/chi-0301180148jan18,1,5059964.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed)
So that brings us back to Condi and her highly orchestrated statement of non-dissent dissent. Like most such Karl Rove-inspired press comments, it is meant to assuage moderate suburban white women voters, while meaning nothing in terms of changing the substance of the latest anti-multi cultural society Bush initiative. It is a pro-white affirmative action policy shrouded in legalese and Neo-Confederacy code word mumbo jumbo. Condi pulls off a typical Rovian Orwellian rope-a-dope: She appears to "split" with Bush, while still supporting his action. The White House then gets "image enhancement" mileage out of having a black female appear to be allowed to challenge Bush, when she was apparently one of the key architects of the policy under fire.
One BuzzFlash reader e-mailed us that maybe Condi was the recipient of affirmative action in her academic admissions -- and that this was a pre-emptive way of undercutting a future revelation that would embarrass the White House. We don't know the answer to this possibility, but we do know that no matter what the reason, Condi's statement doesn't have any impact on the ruinous effort that the Bush Cartel is launching to help close the door of opportunity at America's universities to minorities who don't have the last name of Bush.
After
all, as a former University of Michigan president pointed out, it's
not like they
are giving admission
to minorities
who are slackers like George W. Bush
(our words)
was:
"It's really quite insulting to minority students and graduates to allege
that this has been an operative quota
system, because that suggests there's no review of other qualifications," said
former University of Michigan president Lee Bollinger, now president
of Columbia University. "What
we're talking about in reality is
very highly talented people in the top 10 or 20 percent of applicants
across the entire country."
If Condi were the recipient of affirmative action in her academic career, God bless her. After all, the anti-affirmative action Supreme Court hero to the right wing, Clarence Thomas, was a recipient of affirmative action at Yale Law School. And the right wing keeps telling us how this one Supreme Court justice who almost never says a word is brilliant. And George W. Bush would probably have been working as a Jiffy Lube grease monkey (no offense to Jiffy Lube workers) if his affirmative action "Legacy status" didn't allow him to leap frog over more talented minorities, Jews and smarter working class whites to get into Yale, just because of his WASP bloodline. (If anyone has any doubt about that, Bush was ironically turned down at a public school, the University of Texas Law School, because of his poor academic performance. Bush could only receive "rich white boy affirmative action for underachieving students" at private schools. "That fall, as his father raced Bentsen for the Senate seat, both Bush and Ensenat [a Bush friend], who had already entered law school at the University of Houston, applied for admission to the University of Texas law school. Both were rejected," according to a July 28, 1999, Washington Post article.)
At about the time Clarence Thomas was admitted because of affirmative action to Yale Law School -- and W. had just finished up his sad-assed "academic" career as a WASP affirmative action student at Yale -- two people were admitted to Yale Law School based strictly on merit -- no legacy points, no pull from powerful political figures, just sheer raw academic talent and accomplishment: they were Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham.
Ain't that the ironic truth.
BUZZFLASH NOTE: Throughout his life, George W. Bush has benefited from affirmative action for white guys of mediocre accomplishment and ability. While the white working class guys he tries to lure into voting for him by championing against "code" issues like "race quotas" were getting killed in Vietnam, Bush used affirmative action clout to get into the Texas Air National Guard. While in the Texas Air National Guard, he chose not to volunteer to fight in Vietnam. He spent most of the war screwing women, drinking alcohol and allegedly snorting cocaine, while flying planes to guard Abilene, Texas, from enemy attack. Now, do you think a black college kid named Tyrone could have gotten that coveted slot in the Texas Air National Guard?
Here is the Washington Post (July 28, 1999) account of how George W. Bush escaped serving in Vietnam and let other men die in his place, all as a result of affirmative action for a mediocre white guy:
"Two weeks before he was to graduate from Yale, George Walker Bush stepped into the offices of the Texas Air National Guard at Ellington Field outside Houston and announced that he wanted to sign up for pilot training.
It was May 27, 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. Bush was 12 days away from losing his student deferment from the draft at a time when Americans were dying in combat at the rate of 350 a week. The unit Bush wanted to join offered him the chance to fulfill his military commitment at a base in Texas. It was seen as an escape route from Vietnam by many men his age, and usually had a long waiting list.
Bush had scored only 25 percent on a "pilot aptitude" test, the lowest acceptable grade. But his father was then a congressman from Houston, and the commanders of the Texas Guard clearly had an appreciation of politics.
Bush was sworn in as an airman the same day he applied. His commander, Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt, was apparently so pleased to have a VIP's son in his unit that he later staged a special ceremony so he could have his picture taken administering the oath, instead of the captain who actually had sworn Bush in. Later, when Bush was commissioned a second lieutenant by another subordinate, Staudt again staged a special ceremony for the cameras, this time with Bush's father the congressman – a supporter of the Vietnam War – standing proudly in the background.
Bush's father went on to run for senator in 1970 against Lloyd Bentsen Jr. – a prominent Texas Democrat whose own son had been placed in the same Texas Guard unit by the same Col. Staudt around the same time as Bush. On Election Day, before the polls closed, Guard commanders nominated both George W. Bush and Lloyd Bentsen III for promotion to first lieutenant – even as the elder Bentsen was defeating the elder Bush." (See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics
/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush072899.htm)
ADDITIONAL BUZZFLASH NOTE: Perhaps Rove was also concerned about pre-empting press disclosure that Rice praised affrimative action while at Stanford University. (See: also "Rice: Race Can be a Factor in College Admissions," http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8578-2003Jan17.html)
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
