<DIV>Affirmative Action was created as a national policy by Richard Nixon in his Philadelphia Plan. It was a sort of substitute for real civil rights and school reform. Big biz likes because it reduces the employer's exposure to lawsuits. It's kind of ironic that it has become a liberal icona nd a conservative shibboleth. jks  Doug Henwood <dhenwood@panix.com> wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid; WIDTH: 100%">RE wrote: >The second paragraph of the WSJrnl's lead article today: > >"In a landmark decision with wide-ranging implications for affirmative >action across American society, the court ruled that it is legal to give >some preferential treatment to disadvantaged minorities, calling the >diversity that they bring to education, business and the military necessary >to the cultivation of "a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the >citizenry." > >A new twist to the idea of repressive tolerance from the election thieves. >Is it implausible to think that O'Connor explicitly sees this ruling as >counterbalancing some of the damage they did? Big capital likes affirmative action, and submitted amicus briefs in support of it. As Marx said, the better a ruling class is able to absorb the natural leaders of the dominated class, the more solid & dangerous is its rule. Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><hr SIZE=1> Do you Yahoo!? <a href="http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://rd.yahoo.com/evt=1207/*http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/">SBC Yahoo! DSL</a> - Now only $29.95 per month!