Need for Need Based Affirmative Action. The Democrats lost many blue collar workers because of the advocacy for race based affirmative action programs. The Democrats should advocate for expanded income-based programs that are constitutional and truly benefit those in need. The current race based affirmative action programs have been found to be illegal and unconstitutional by several federal court rulings. Thus, it needs to change. The presumption in federal and private sector affirmative action programs that every minority is poor or disadvantaged is just not true. Unfortunately, many are, but also more than a few are not. Think of Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Michael Jordan to name just a few. Income or class is a much better proxy for determining if someone is poor or disadvantaged. There are many more poor whites in the USA than poor Blacks. The Reverend Barber in his recent book White Poverty estimates that there are sixty-six million whites who are technically poor or low income compared to twenty-four million Blacks – almost three times more whites than Blacks.
Views on Affirmative Action. A very large number of white people do not support race based affirmative action programs. Indeed, they bitterly resent it and view it as reverse discrimination, asking: do two wrongs make a right? Thus, many blue-collar whites now align with the Republican Party, even though it does not typically represent their economic interests– unless they are rich. Many minorities do not even approve of affirmative action. A Pew research poll in 2023 indicated that twenty percent of Black Americans viewed it negatively. Some even feel insulted and disrespected at being stereotyped as disadvantaged. Some may even be attracted to the Republican Party for that reason. We should not confuse affirmative action with reparation.
Fairer Ways to Racial Diversity. Richard Kahlenberg, Director of the American Identity Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, has long criticized race-based affirmative action, arguing instead for a class-based approach. “If you care about racial diversity, as I do, you want to find fairer ways to get to the same result,” he said. “And it’s precisely because of the nation’s history of discrimination and the ongoing realities of discrimination by race that communities of color will disproportionately benefit from a needs-based approach to affirmative action,” he added. “And there’s no constitutional problem with that.” Redirecting and expanding the program would help not only the minorities who are disproportionally poor but also benefit many poor whites. Such an approach would be less polarizing and attract a wider spectrum of political support as well as more funding for affirmative action social programs.