Pence: The Need for Affirmative Action Is ‘Over’

Former Vice President Mike Pence, a GOP presidential candidate, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” the need for affirmative action was over.

Partial transcript as follows:

JON KARL: I understand you fully support this decision. But if the end result is that America’s most selective colleges and universities have fewer Black and Hispanic students, is that a problem for America?

PENCE: Well, look, I think I couldn’t be more proud of the progress we’ve made toward a more perfect union in my lifetime, the Civil Rights Acts in the 1960s. And I think there was a time for affirmative action, Jon, were to open the doors of our colleges and universities to minority students and particularly African Americans who may have been denied access.

But I think those days are over. You know, it was Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who more than 20 years ago, said that she thought affirmative action would go away in 25 years, it went away a little sooner than that. And I think that’s a tribute to our minority students. The incredible accomplishments of African Americans and Asian Americans in this country and Hispanic Americans speaks for itself.

And I really believe that the decision by the Supreme Court today was an acknowledgement of the incredible progress that minority Americans have made, their extraordinary educational achievements, and I have every confidence that – that African Americans and other minority Americans are going to continue to compete and succeed in universities around the country, but we’re going to do it with a colorblind society that I – I think is the aspiration of every American.

KARL: But, respectfully, you didn’t answer my question. We’ve – we’ve seen what has happened in nine states that have banned affirmative action. We’ve seen in Michigan and California and Florida that after affirmative action was done away with, the result was that you saw fewer Hispanic and black students at their elite universities. So, again, my question to you, if that is the result here, is that a concern? Is that a concern for you?

PENCE: I just – look, I — I haven’t seen your studies. I don’t know the numbers. First job I ever had was as an admissions counselor at the college I graduated from. And all – I’m — I’m just very confident with the progress that we have made now in 2023, a fourth of the way through the 21st century, the achievements of African Americans, leaving aside the – the achievements of the first African American president, and African Americans all across the country. I’m just – I’m just very confident that African Americans, Hispanic Americans and other minorities are going to be able to compete and succeed. But we’re going to be able to do it with – with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision in place that we’ll be judged not by the content – or judged by — not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character and by our own academic performance.

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