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I support affirmative action. I support special measures when you need it.

I'm not one that believes that affirmative action should be based on one's skin color or one's gender, I think it should be done based on one's need, because I think if you are from a poor white community, I think that poor white kid needs a scholarship just as badly as a poor black kid.

Affirmative action works but we're going to need to muster all our political resources if we are to keep it in place.

Affirmative action is the most important antidiscrimination technique ever instituted in the United States. It is the one tool that has had a demonstrable effect on discrimination... Affirmative action, by all statistical measures, has been the central ingredient to the creation of the black middle class.

If you don't like affirmative action, what is your plan to guarantee a level playing field of opportunity?

Affirmative action is an effort to include every aspect of society in the decision making.

What is so remarkable about the success of affirmative action is that it has been accomplished despite the Justice Department and the policies of the federal government.

If we are prepared to invest the necessary time and effort, affirmative action can contribute to Harvard's quality and not detract from it.

I don't know what this definition of affirmative action is for some.