John Kerry on

Affirmative Action: According to onlineethics.org, Affirmative Action is: "Positive steps to enhance the diversity of some group, often to remedy the cumulative effect of subtle as well as gross expressions of prejudice. When numerical goals are set, they are set according to the group's representation in the applicant pool rather than the group's representation in the general population." Generally included in the "group" are minorities (African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, American Indians and Asian-Americans) and women.

John F. Kerry:

Description of candidate's position: In the senate, Kerry helped block efforts to end affirmative action by voting for it at least four times. Kerry has always been committed to Affirmative Action, but in 1992, a statement was made by Kerry that lead to some speculation on his true stance on Affirmative Action. Kerry said: "today the civil rights arena is controlled by lawyers and the winners and losers [are] determined by...rules most Americans neither understand or are sympathetic with. The shift in the civil rights agenda has directed most of our attention and much of our hope into one inherently limited and divisive program: affirmative action." Kerry quickly said that in many other parts of his speech he stated that he was for the positive aspects of Affirmative Action, it was necessary and he supported it. He stated it was a "mend it, don't end it" program.

Quotation from the candidate: "I support it now and I will always support it in the future in order to achieve what we need to achieve in terms of diversity in this country. And it's a strength, not a weakness. It's not just universities that have come to realize that. It's the whole country" said Kerry.

Assessment of the Proposal:

Positive: "Bill Clinton set a great standard of diversity and John Kerry has the same drive and commitment that was the President's trademark," said Marcus Jadotte who recently served as chief of staff in the office of Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-FL), "Rest assured: John Kerry is not taking any vote for granted. He is aggressively pursuing the trust, respect and support of the entire African American community."

Negative: "Kerry and friends have perverted that original understanding and turned it on its head. To them, affirmative action means requiring that everyone be treated differently based on their race." Says John Rosenberg, a grad student on discrimination at Stanford University.

Comparison: Kerry advocates keeping affirmative action and perhaps changing it. Bush opposes affirmative action, calling it a quota system and has advocated eliminating it. Bush also states that affirmative action is unconstitutional because of racial favoritism.

Link to Bush affirmative action page.

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