by Patrick J. Buchanan – November 6, 1997

Backers of racial preferences are taking heart from a 54 percent-46 percent ballot victory in Houston that upholds a policy which sets aside 20 percent of the city’s business exclusively for minorities and women.

“Houston’s Support of Affirmative Action May Slow Opposition Efforts Elsewhere” headlined a Wall Street Journal story, suggesting the drive to replicate California’s Proposition 209, which outlawed racial and gender preferences, is out of gas. “The momentum to end affirmative action appears to have ended at the California border,” exults Wayne Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.