Notable & Quotable: Sen. Obama on Preferences

George Stephanopoulos interviewing then-Sen. Barack Obama on ABC’s “This Week,” May 13, 2007:

Stephanopoulos: You’ve been a strong supporter of affirmative action.

Obama: Yes.

Stephanopoulos: And you’re a constitutional law professor, so let’s go back in the classroom.

Obama: Right.

Stephanopoulos: I’m your student. I say, Professor, you and your wife went to Harvard Law School. Got plenty of money, you’re running for president. Why should your daughters, when they go to college, get affirmative action?

Obama: Well, first of all, I think that my daughters should probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged, and I think that there’s nothing wrong with us taking that into account as we consider admissions policies at universities. I think that we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed. So I don’t think those concepts are mutually exclusive. I think what we can say is that in our society race and class still intersect, that there are a lot of African-American kids who are still struggling, that even those who are in the middle class may be first-generation as opposed to fifth- or sixth-generation college attendees, and that we all have an interest in bringing as many people together to help build this country.

Stephanopoulos: Sandra Day O’Connor wrote that in 25 years affirmative action may no longer be necessary. Is she right?

Obama: I would like to think that if we make good decisions and we invest in early childhood education, improved K-12, if we have done what needs to be done to ensure that kids who are qualified to go to college can afford it, that affirmative action becomes a diminishing tool for us to achieve racial equality in this society.