Trump, Obama, and Affirmative Action

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

Trump or Obama: Who Do You Think Was the Better Student?

My Latino Voice
Written by RosaMaria Pegueros

“Trump Pivots From Obama’s Birth Certificate to College Grades: Says the President needs to explain how he got into Harvard” --so reads the headline immediately after President Barack Obama’s release of his long-form birth certificate.Reality show star and financier Donald Trump can play stupid games that feed the appetites of the slow-witted and small-minded Fox Network viewers, calling into question the president’s place of birth and even his practice of Christianity. But there is one thing, aside from his color, that one cannot question about Obama: his intellectual brilliance. That the buffoonish Trump, a child of privilege and showman à la Barnum and Bailey, now attacks the basis of Obama’s authority, is simply ludicrous. It can, however, be read in a more sinister light: here comes the attack on affirmative action.

Full Story: http://mylatinovoice.com/politics-and-us/25-lo-que-es/2812-trump-or-obama-who-do-you-think-was-the-better-student.html

PAT BUCHANAN: President Obama Is "Affirmative Action All The Way"

Business Insider
The Wire
Steven Loeb Apr. 27, 2011, 11:45 AM

Donald Trump has gone from questioning President Obama's citizenship to questioning his education, wondering how he got into Columbia and Harvard calling him "a terrible student."
Appearing on Hardball last night, Pat Buchanan refused to go as far as Trump has with really questioning the President's background, he did have his own theories about how Obama wound up getting into Ivy League schools.
"I think he's affirmative action all the way."
"He's an African-American kid at a time when everybody's saying bring those guys in, give them an advantage, move them ahead...it's about whether he benefited from affirmative action. Is that an illegitimate question?

"Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-matthews-pat-buchanan-obama-affirmative-action-video-2011-4#ixzz1KopCDPk8