How Affirmative Action Became an Upper-Middle Class Benefit - The Daily Beast

How Affirmative Action Became an Upper-Middle Class Benefit - The Daily Beast: The Court is grappling this term with the constitutionality of preferential admissions at the University of Texas, and recently announced that it will review next fall the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) that amends the Michigan Constitution to prohibit preferential treatment based upon “race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin” in admissions, employment or public contracts.

Regardless of when and how the Supreme Court rules on the pending challenges to affirmative action, here are three takeaways:

One, opposition to affirmative action does not necessarily translate into opposition to Barack Obama. Two, interest groups that opposed racial preferences in the 1970s may now be among its backers. Three, liberal support for affirmative action as we know it may be ebbing, as “diversity” has become a shorthand for race.

As David Leonhardt put it in the New York Times, “low-income students, controlling for race, receive either no preference or a modest one, depending on which study you believe.” In other words, affirmative action is now another upper-middle class benefit.