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Hardly a day goes by that someone of prominence
-- a politician, a talk show host, an entertainer

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-- doesn't call some conservative -- or Conservatives
generally -- racist.

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Here are typical examples:
The Chairman of the Democratic Congressional

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Campaign Committee, Congressman Steve Israel:
"To a significant extent, [conservatives]

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are animated by racism."
TV newscaster Ed Schultz:

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"This is what the Republican Party stands for. . . : racism."

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Oprah Winfrey: "There's a level of disrespect
for the office that occurs in some cases

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and maybe even many cases because [the President
is] African American. There's no question about that.

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" To call someone a racist should be a very serious matter.

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A racist is a person who believes
that one race is inherently superior or inferior to another.

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It's not intelligence or goodness
that determines an individual's worth;

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it's his or her skin color.

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To say that racism is foolish and stupid -- not
to mention evil -- is to understate the case.

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But, according to many of their critics, conservatives
are that stupid and that evil.

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But, with few exceptions, conservatives are
neither. So why is the charge even made?

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The answer is primarily political: to maintain
black support for liberals and liberal policies.

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To back up this charge, the accusers point
to conservative policies.

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So let's examine some conservative policies
to see if they are, indeed, racist.

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The longstanding conservative opposition to
Affirmative Action is a good place to start.

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It was Democratic President, John F. Kennedy,
who first used the term "affirmative action" in 1961.

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But Affirmative Action, in the way
we think of it now, wasn't implemented until 1970,

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during the Administration of a Republican
President, Richard Nixon.

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The theory was that, because of historical
discrimination, blacks were at a competitive

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disadvantage to other races and ethnicities.
To erase that disadvantage, standards that

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most blacks presumably couldn't meet had to
be lowered.

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One could make the case that this policy had
some utility when it was first put in place.

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But that was a long time ago. The conservative
position is that blacks have repeatedly proven

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they can compete with anyone without the benefits
-- demeaning benefits, I might add -- of lower standards.

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There are countless examples of
black success in every field at every level.

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The policy is no longer necessary.

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But the conservative argument goes further.
Study after study shows that, in the case

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of college admissions, Affirmative Action
actually hurts many blacks. By lowering admissions

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standards for blacks (and some other minority
students), colleges set many of these students

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up for failure. They get placed in schools
for which they're not prepared.

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And high black dropout rates confirm this view.

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So does common sense.

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If white students with mediocre SAT scores
were admitted to Ivy League schools,

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they, too, would be set up to fail.

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Let's do the math: Conservatives believe that
blacks and other minorities are every bit

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as capable as whites of succeeding as policemen,

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firemen,

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businessmen,

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lawyers,

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doctors,

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politicians,

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and college students.

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Yet, for this belief
conservatives are called racist.

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The irony, of course, is that those who accuse
conservatives of being racist believe that

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blacks and other minorities are not as capable
as whites of succeeding and therefore still

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need Affirmative Action, almost a half century
after it was first implemented.

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Let's look at another issue where this contrast
between conservatives and those who accuse

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them of being racist is even more starkly
drawn -- Voter ID.

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Conservatives say that America should require
that every voter present an ID when he or she votes,

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just as European countries do in
order to help keep their elections honest.

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Are all these democracies racist? Of course
not.

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Yet, the accusers say that conservatives who support Voter ID are racist.

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Why do they say this? Because, they argue,
it's really a ruse to prevent blacks and minorities

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from voting, since many of them just aren't
capable of acquiring an ID.

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Can you get more condescending than that?

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Let's be real. You need an ID to drive, to fly, to buy a beer, even to purchase some cold medicines.

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Whites can do it, but blacks
can't? Tell me who the racists are again?

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One more example: it's conservatives who push
for school vouchers, which would allow all parents,

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not just wealthy ones, to choose
their children's school. It's the other side

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that doesn't trust minority parents to select
an appropriate school for their children.

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Why aren't the people who compel black children
to stay in terrible schools the racists?

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At some point, maybe you'll start asking yourself,
like I did:

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Who's really obsessed with race? And whose
policies really hurt blacks and minorities?

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Maybe it's not who you think it is.

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I'm Derryck Green of Project 21 for Prager
University.