considered. so this goes all the way back to the oral argument when the council for the sffa challenging the affirmative action program was asked what if somebody wrote on their essay that they overcame an experience of racial adversity? and the council said that would be totally fine because that would go to the individual s character rather than to simple membership in the group. and chief justice roberts in his opinion gave that, and that creates a big avenue. when you think about what every university is going to do, they re all going to ask have you had any adversity in your life you would like to bring before the committee? savvy applicants will write i had this experience overcoming racial adversity and universities will be able to take this into account. is this the last time we ll see the issue of affirmative action before the court? this is just the very, very beginning of it. because even the kalenburg stuff you were mentioning earlier, i gave you some good news from the
affirmative action, a program to combat discrimination correct centuries of racial injustice, the war against all that, it started well before jesse helms. this is what was happening 14 years before that. certainly no one of us would challenge governments right and its responsibility to eliminate discrimination in hiring or education. but in its zeal to accomplish this worthy purpose, government orders what is, in effect, a quota system. both in hiring and in education. they don t call it a quota system. it s an affirmative action program. now if you happen to belong to an ethnic group not recognized by the federal government as entitled to special treatment, you re a victim of reverse discrimination. i d like to have the opportunity to put an end to this federal distortion of the principle of equal rights. that was presidential candidate ronald reagan using the issue of affirmative action to protect president gerald
certainly no one of us would challenge governments right and its responsibility to eliminate discrimination in hiring or education. but in its zeal to accomplish this worthy purpose, government orders what is, in effect, a quota system. both in hiring and in education. they don t call it a quota system. it s an affirmative action program. now if you happen to belong to an ethnic group not recognized by the federal government as entitled to special treatment, you re a victim of reverse discrimination. i d like to have the opportunity to put an end to this federal distortion of the principle of equal rights. that was presidential candidate ronald reagan using the issue of affirmative action to protect president gerald ford and his democrat rival, jimmy carter. now reagan didn t win the presidency. he didn t even make it past the primaries. but oh boy did he get his chance to chip away what he called the federal distortion
its responsibility to eliminate discrimination in higher education, but in its zeal to accomplish this worthy purpose government orders what is in effect a quota system both in hiring and in education. they don t call it a quota system. it s an affirmative action program. now, if you happen to belong to an ethnic group thought recognized by the federal government noty entitled to special treatment, you are a victim of reverse discrimination. and i d like to have an opportunity toha put an end to this federal distortion of equal rights. that was reagan. reagan didn t win the presidency, he didn t make it past the primaries but oh, boy did he get a chance to chip away at what he called the federal distortion of equal rights when he won the presidency of 1980.
advantages, and michelle robinson at the time, and barack obama did not have. so, as generations have passed here, the perspectives have changed. and interesting pew study here constructive to the public opinion. looking at the numbers here. a bare majority of 50% of americans said they believe that affirmative action programs have run the course. they do not approve of the affirmative actions, and only 16% approve and about 75% of republicans, and 3/4 of republicans believe that they disapprove of the affirmative action program, and 54% of the democrats, and actually 29% of democratic-leaning voters support the programs, and so certainly, view ed with a