Some say racial preference not needed now

WASHINGTON, March 18 (UPI) -- Anti-affirmative action groups say the presidential run by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is proof race-based preferences are no longer needed.

Several conservative organization policy specialists say the number of white voters supporting Obama, who's leading in the Democratic delegate race, is evidence affirmative action isn't necessary now, the Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

Ward Connerly, a black conservative leading a national effort to ban race-based preferences, said he would use Obama's success to validate anti-affirmative action questions his organization is promoting in five states.

"I've been saying for a number of years that the American people are not institutionally racist," said Connerly, founder of the American Civil Rights Institute. "It underscores my position ... that affirmative action is an idea whose time has passed."

Affirmative action proponents say Obama's campaign proves affirmative action works and should remain.

"I think blacks who have opportunities can make it ... but we know that many black kids do not have the opportunities that Barack Obama had," Cynthia Brown, education policy director for the Center for American Progress in Washington, told the Globe. "But we have many, many black kids who didn't have that ... ."