Melissa Harris-Perry: How Pres Obama Got into Harvard Is "Easy:

[tishaLA]

Affirm.Action. Thats how it supposed to work! Give brilliant blk kids a chance. I got into school w/ AffirmAct. Racism kept us out. Policy gave us a chance. That's what justice looks like. No shame at all!"

And Prof Harris-Perry is right: there IS a chance Pres Obama got into Harvard (and/or Columbia) because of Affirmative Action. But what's the problem with that? Affirmative Action is there because things like legacy admissions helped keep African American, Latino, and Native American kids out. What matters is what happens when they are there. Affirmative Action is only in place so underrepresented students have the same chance to succeed--or fail--that white kids are accustomed to having. It is to Pres Obama and Prof Harris-Perry's credit that they managed to succeed in ways most students of any race can never imagine.

So, while the RW noisemakers are going to want us to be defensive about the proposition that Pres Obama got in because of Affirmative Action, the real point is that he ended up magna cum laude and Editor of the Harvard Law Review not because of Affirmative Action, but because Affirmative Action gave him the chance to show his excellence.

[pnwmom]

1. Clarence Thomas benefited from affirmative action every step of his way.

It's still the only thing holding him up.

[davidpdx]

8. That and the Depends underwear he wears everyday to work....

[LiberalFighter]

14. And he wasn't qualified for it.

They just wanted Clarence so they had someone to pull by the nose.

[polichick]

2. You're right - that IS how it's supposed to work. It's all about dog whistle politics...

...and Trump is disgusting and pathetic to go there.

[ClassWarrior]

3. Well said, by you and Ms. H-P.

Off to the Greatest Page with thee!!

NGU.

[Frances]

4. Trump wants Harvard

to be nothing but the children of wealthy, influential parents. I don't remember the main stream media complaining about Yale accepting W after the U of Texas turned W down because he didn't qualify on his own merits.

[MasonJar]

18. What's really laughable is that W got in Yale and Harvard. Most people

don't get in Harvard Business School with a gentleman's C from Yale. I didn't see Trump out there lighting up that truly remarkable misuse of a place in the class.

[provis99]

5. these conservatives have no complaints about legacies like Bush.

They think it's part of the natural order that rich WASPs should get all the advantages.

[Tx4obama]

6. GOP is just trying to add Affirmative Action to the long list of words....

that they want to try to get America to think are bad.
Such as 'community organizer', 'Acorn', 'Planned Parenthood', 'Medicare', 'Food Stamps', 'EPA', 'Alternative Energy', 'Climate Change', etc.

[polichick]

7. Don't forget LIBERAL.

[SheilaT]

9. Yes. And rightly so.

About ten years ago, when my oldest son (white, middle class, attending a very good private school) was applying for college, any number of parents of males (also white, also middle class, also attending the same very good private school) would complain bitterly that their sons were being discriminated against. I always told them no, their sons weren't being discriminated against, and chances are no white person fully appreciates the privilege that comes from the white skin.

Back some forty years ago, when companies were just beginning to understand that they really couldn't discriminate as overtly as they had been, and I was a budding feminist, the one black man I worked with was totally sympathetic with the women's movement. He understood.

[customerserviceguy]

10. What's dangerous about this attack

is that like the birther issue, it's an attack on his legitimacy. If it comes out that Barack Obama had lackluster grades, then his affirmative action acceptance into Harvard looks like an unfair advantage to him, that somehow he didn't deserve it. That translates to his presidency, that he didn't 'deserve' that, either, and that his election was just white guilt affirmatively actioning him into the White House in 2008. That's how the Rethuglicans will spin it.

On the other hand, if he does release his grades, and they show him to be an exceptional student who earned a place into Harvard, then the media will gladly see what else Trump can drum out of Obama. Pretty soon, all he will look like is the victim of a shakedown, and nobody wants a victim for a President.

Don't underestimate the racism (and sexism) that demonizing affirmative action has spawned in this country.

[KitSileya]

11. And the irony of Bush's lackluster grades

will be swept under the rug, not brought up, and generally dismissed as inconsequential. His affirmative action admission (only they called it legacy admission) will be ignored, even tho' we do know for certain that his grades were mediocre or worse, and that he didn't have the grades necessary to enter Harvard and Yale without help.

It galls, and is so racist it can bring your blood pressure up several points.

[JaneQPublic]

12. GWBush got into college via Affirmative Action, as well.

Only his was the kind given to rich, white, well-connected dummies who get a "legacy" admission because their important Daddy was a graduate.

Where was The Donald's outrage about Shrub's college transcripts?

[Solomon]

13. Please don't forget that affirmative action included white women.

A huge fact that always gets lost in the sauce. I hate it when people leave this out. So blacks get the tag concerning affirmative action just like when people hear the word "welfare" they think of blacks as though there are no white people on welfare.

[Cali_Democrat]

15. Yes, but Republicans try to use affirmative action as a smear against blacks

They don't care that it helped white women also. They want people to think Obama was a 'welfare queen'. They want affirmative action to be a buzzword.

Also, more white people are on welfare than blacks, but that doesn't matter to them. They want welfare to be associated with blacks. It's all about the Southern strategy and trying to appeal to the fears of white voters.

It's all about drawing attention to Obama's race. They want this to be about race and not the issues.

[ClarkUSA]

16. In 2008, I recall reading that Pres. Obama didn't indicate race on his Harvard application.

Trump and the racist assholes who always questioned/are still questioning/will always question Pres. Obama's qualifications can go fuck themselves.

[ellacott]

19. Thank you for posting this, I was going to post the exact same thing

I remember reading that also.

[TayTay]

17. Trump wanted a Legacy to get in instead

He is just insanely upset that some hard-working, brilliant,talented African-American student might wrongly take the place of a friend's son who was rich and well-born.

[Roy Ellefson]

20. Please forgive me for this post

I know it's probably inappropriate...but I think Melissa Harris-Perry is very hot...again, my apologies for my one-track mind.