In the presidential campaign, all you’ll hear about is student debt and college costs, if you hear about higher ed at all.
Affirmative action? Despite some court cases brewing, nothing.
Frankly, I’d say in Donald Trump—a guy with no experience in governing or in politics and yet so close to being president—some kind of affirmative action is in the works.
But it was Hillary Clinton the other day who actually used a deft political move that was reminiscent of the affirmative action rhetoric of the past.
If you’ve followed the evolution of the affirmative action debate, then you know the basic conflict always boils down to race vs. class.
Those who feel people of color are excluded see race-based approaches should be the primary focus.
Those who hate affirmative action and see it as an unfair advantage for people of color shift the debate and use class as their battle cry. All the while, they hold up ignored poor Whites in Appalachia as their preferred victims.
