I disagree with this. The ruling class as a whole does not favor affirmative action. This does not mean that there will be token defenses of it, such as the kind that Clinton exhibits. The overall direction of US black-white relations since the Reagan era began with Jimmy Carter and now continues with Bill Clinton. For analysis of the impact of affirmative action, I recommend Andrew Hacker's latest book. He makes the point that it was never implemented in private corporations to any great extent, only in the public sector. For the best account of its origins, I recommend Gerald Horne's book.
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)