Clinton Plays the Race Card

By BOB WARD

Editor of the Texas Journal

IF BILL CLINTON WEREN'T PRESIDENT, he might be working door to door selling autographed copies of the Bible or some other job that depends on moxie, a talent for double-talk -- plus a touch

of arrogance. The President displayed all three of these dubious qualities in his San Diego speech on race relations.

There was very little of substance in Clinton's talk. Instead, he lectured us and scolded us for some vaguely defined failings. He said we must hold a "conversation" to change how we feel and think about race. But Clinton is a politician,an administrator -- the Head Bureaucrat. He is not our uncle, our father, our pastor, our rabbi, our guru, our mentor or our shrink. A proper response to his presumptions is to tell him to mind his own business.

The one policy issue he raised was a defense of "affirmative action." He repeated a much-used straw man when he said Californians voted to end preferences in a mistaken belief discrimination no longer exists. In fact Californians, like most Americans, know discrimination exists and consider preferences to be an instance of it. That's why his demand that critics of quotas "come up with an alternative" is absurd. When a doctor wants to remove a cancer who asks what he will put in its place? The President asserted that affirmative action "has worked," but that was never an issue. Abortion works, it kills the baby, but that does not redeem the practice. It is the morality and the fairness of affirmative action that is disputed, not its effectiveness.

Clinton noted that since California ended preferences the number of minorities in state graduate schools has fallen. This is another red herring. Fewer minorities in this or that school are not a problem. If one person is denied admission because he's black or Hispanic -- or white -- that's a problem. If the selection process is fair, the resulting mix of races and genders is immaterial. The overriding consideration must be fairness, not diversity. And critics of quotas action say the reduction in minority enrollment reveals how far the system had departed from fairness.

There is a considerable body of opinion that holds affirmative action responsible for the continuing and even increasing racial tensions. Also contributing to racial hostilities are the practice of rewriting history, distorting and neglecting the cultural heritage of the West.

Keeping racial conflict alive is bad for society, but good necessary for Clinton and the Democrats. Abolishing preferences in college admissions will increase the pressure on public schools and the teacher unions to do a better job of preparing minority kids for college. Also, Clinton has powerful supporters who depend on racial issues for their influence and even their finances. Maintaining race as a salient issue postpones that awful day when Jesse Jackson will have to get a real job.