Does Obama support income-based and not race-based affirmative action? Sure sounds like it. Is he willing to say so? I doubt it. I think he’s trying to appear moderate to whites while at the same time keeping the blacks happy.

Someone should ask him though if poverty should replace race as the primary factor of affirmative action. If he willing to say “yes” or “no”? Which is it?

SENATOR OBAMA: And I think that for universities and other institutions to say, you know, we’re going to take into account the hardships that somebody has experienced because they’re black or Latino or because they’re women—

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if they’re wealthy?

SENATOR OBAMA: I think that’s something that they can take into account, but it can only be in the context of looking at the whole situation of the young person. So if they look at my child and they say, you know, Malia and Sasha, they’ve had a pretty good deal, then that shouldn’t be factored in. On the other hand, if there’s a young white person who has been working hard, struggling, and has overcome great odds, that’s something that should be taken into account.

So I still believe in affirmative action as a means of overcoming both historic and potentially current discrimination, but I think that it can’t be a quota system and it can’t be something that is simply applied without looking at the whole person, whether that person is black or white or Hispanic, male or female.

Affirmative Action IS racism and Discrimination.