I hope I’m not telling anyone here anything new when I point out that race based affirmative action is unpopular. From Pew:
“The survey – conducted from March 27 to April 2, 2023, among 5,079 members of the Center’s American Trends Panel – finds that Americans are more than twice as likely to say that the consideration of race and ethnicity in admissions decisions makes the overall admissions process less fair (49%) rather than more fair (20%)”
Even when the results are viewed just among Democrats, only the barest majority comes out in support of this policy. And even then, my own suspicion is that a lot of DEMs claim to support affirmative action because we are likely to see it as part of our political identity (and as something our opponents dislike) rather than as a policy that we actually agree with.
Because, after all, when the “affirmative action” terminology is removed, I think we get a better sense where people may actually stand. Ruy Teixeira recently wrote about a USC Dornsife survey:
“The survey also asked respondents whether they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about race in America. One was a classic statement of colorblind equality: ‘Our goal as a society should be to treat all people the same without regard to the color of their skin’. This Martin Luther King-style statement elicited sky-high (92 percent) agreement from the public, despite the assaults on this idea from Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the likes of Ibram X. Kendi and large sectors of the Democratic left. In a fascinating related finding, the researchers found that most people who claim to have heard about CRT believe CRT includes this colorblind perspective, rather than directly contradicting it. Perhaps they just can’t believe any theory that has anything to do with race would reject this fundamental principle.”
The DEMs had best move on from race based affirmative action. If we try and die on that hill, that’s exactly what’ll happen: we’ll die.