Why Richard Cohen?

Perhaps I flatter myself (well, someone has to), but I believe I understand the argument for racial preferences. Like the argument for busing to achieve racial balance that preceded and resembles it, it is almost always well-intentioned. Preferentialists, just as much as their critics, believe they have truth, justice, and the American Way on their side. I don’t doubt there sincerity or, generally, their good will. But there are still two things I do not understand.

Since colorblindness was such a core value of what might be termed the civil rights vision for so long — roughly from the 1830s through the mid-1960s — I don’t understand why the great preponderance of liberals abandoned, even repudiated, the principle of colorblindness almost as soon as it was enshrined in law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Equally perplexing to me is why a relative handful of liberals did not follow their colleagues in their tragic and fateful reversal.

Richard Cohen of the Washington Post must know, for his column yesterday on “what ails affirmative action” reveals that he has an honored place in that small band of liberals who have kept the old faith.

Sooner or later the argument for [affirmative action] gets so attenuated it becomes downright silly. The reason is that some justification has to be found to overcome the obvious — that the constitutional protection of equal treatment under the law is being violated. Someone is being rejected on account of race. It is that simple.

Yes. It really is that simple.

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  1. Peg K April 4, 2003 at 8:13 am | | Reply

    I give Richard Cohen credit. Even if he is a “liberal,” he speaks his own mind.

    Some of my lefty friends have called him a “racist” and said, “Can’t be a liberal if he is anti-affirmative action.”

    I still am having SO much difficulty figuring out why the liberals cannot see the blatant racism of THEIR positions. But glad to know that Richard Cohen does “get it” and tells it like it is.

  2. Don Bruce June 10, 2003 at 8:02 am | | Reply

    Re Richard Cohen’s column, Another View, “Ashcroft’s arrogance makes him a serious threat.” Cohen briefly mentions that the detainees by the Justic Dept. after 9/11 were illegal immigrants then goes on to complain of their treatment as if they were solid citizens. The US probably treats illegals as well or better than any other nation on earth but, they were ILLEGAL immigrants. Ashcroft followed the law.

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