The jobless white males in Pittsburgh's rusted river valleys are still waiting. With racial preferences rendered more than a bit arbitrary, resentment is natural. Unfortunately, that dim opinion all too easily corrupts into a suspicion that members of favored groups achieve much of their success courtesy of an unfair boost over the competition. That's just plain corrosive in any society, and especially so in a culture that values individual initiative and personal ability. No wonder Americans are getting fed up with programs that treat people differently according to their skin color and ancestry.
Opposition goes further than the occasional dinnertime chat with a pollster.
Fed up with programs that do more to set people against each other than boost those with special needs, Californians voted in 1996 for Proposition 209. That's pretty straightforward stuff, but it drew a lawsuit from fans of racial preferences. But Proposition 209 only applies to action by agencies of the state government. Hiring, firing and other decisions by private businesses and institutions fall under federal regulations that effectively mandate discriminatory treatment. These days, just about every company and school in the U.S. has employees who earn their kibble by making sure that advertised job requirements don't tread on legal landmines, and that dismissed employees aren't handed grounds to sue based on their last names or the melanin content of their skin.