The Chronicle of Higher Education
May 5, 2011, 5:58 pm
By Richard Kahlenberg
Following a campaign to get President Obama to release his birth certificate, Donald Trump shifted the issue to release of Obama’s college transcripts. In a veiled reference to affirmative action, Trump told the Associated Press, “I’ve heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia, and then to Harvard?” He challenged, “Let him show his records.”
Many supporters of the president understandably took this accusation—on top of the “birther” allegations—as yet another insult of America’s first black president. Some suggested it was outrageous—even racist—to suggest that Obama’s transfer from Occidental College to Columbia University and his admission to Harvard Law School wasn’t strictly based on merit.
Bob Schieffer of CBS News, for example, objected to Trump’s assertion that “We need to look at his grades and see if he was a good enough student to get into Harvard Law School. That’s just code for saying he got into law school because he’s black. This is an ugly strain of racism that’s running through this whole thing.” DeWayne Wickham, likewise, wrote in USA Today, “If his factless assault on Obama’s citizenship isn’t proof enough of Trump’s racism, then his attempt to brand the president as the undeserving beneficiary of affirmative action in higher education—an old saw of modern-day bigots—should remove all doubt.”
Full Commentary: http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/trump-obama-and-affirmative-action/29379
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