Tucker Carlson bashed affirmative action while debating the practice Wednesday night with Jay Chen, a Harvard alumni and affirmative action proponent.
At issue was a lawsuit filed against Harvard University for allegedly discriminating against Asian-American students, who are at a severe disadvantage due to affirmative action practices.
“Is it racial discrimination to not let somebody into college on the basis of their race?” the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” host and Daily Caller founder posed to Chen, who then pivoted to talking about the advantages he says white high school students have, like attending private schools.
“But those are non-sequiturs,” Carlson pointed out, “you’re diverting from the question and you know that you don’t have an answer to this. But if racial discrimination is wrong and I believe it is, then it’s just wrong. There’s a moral element here I think, right?”
Chen, who had earlier pointed to slavery and Jim Crow laws as justification for affirmative action practices today, dodged the question and began talking about President-elect Donald Trump.
“I agree that racial discrimination is wrong,” Chen said, “But to say that you’re starting off with a clean slate as an applicant, when you if you are a Mexican-American student and you’re worried that your parents might get deported by the next president, you have a significantly different experience than a Caucasian student.”
“You know what, can I just say something really clear? Children are not responsible for the sins of previous ages,” Carlson shot back. “No 18-year-old Asian or Black or Hispanic kid is responsible for slavery or Jim Crow or the sins of America, and to punish them for those things is grotesque.”
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