Ward Him Off
Anti-affirmative action activist Ward Connerly announces his new plans.
By Lauren Dunn, Center for American Progress
Wednesday March 14, 2007
Ward Connerly, director of the American Civil Rights Campaign and tireless anti-affirmative action crusader, announced his preliminary list of targeted states at a Mar. 2 Heritage Foundation event for what he has dubbed “Super Tuesday for Equality in 2008.” Watch out, public university students in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. If Connerly has his way, he may take what he calls “sugar-coated words like diversity and inclusion” right out of your campus diets.
After a major electoral victory in November 2006 on Proposal 2 in Michigan, a ballot initiative which outlawed all preferences based on race, ethnicity, or gender in public education and employment, Connerly and his colleagues were emboldened to seek out five more states in which to crusade against affirmative action. “The Rockies look especially promising,” Connerly, a former regent of the University of California system, said when asked which of those listed nine states he would include as part of his five focused ’08 campaigns. “Now, after Michigan, it will only get easier,” he exclaimed. Connerly admitted he was shocked to win in a more liberal state like Michigan, where both major parties opposed Prop. 2, adding, “Republicans are realizing they miscalculated in supporting social equity over individual rights.”
Connerly and his fanatics have convinced themselves that affirmative action “did the wrong thing in the name of fairness,” as he put it. They believe that Prop. 209, which decimated affirmative action in California, has resulted in fairer admittance rates at the state’s public universities in the 10 years since its enactment. Their success in gaining 54 percent of the public vote in what many would consider a progressive state also led to pre-emptive moves by none other than the Bush brothers (Jeb and then-Governor George W.) in both the Florida and Texas state university systems to percentage plans that were said to yield race-neutral admittance results.
But if the mission of a public university is to provide a quality education to a population that reflects the demographics of the greater surrounding community, then the trends we’re seeing are hardly approaching fair. In Los Angeles County, which has the second largest African American population in the entire United States, the most prestigious local public university, UCLA, has only 96 African-Americans as part of this year’s freshman class of 4,852 students. That’s only 2 percent, and it represents the smallest population of African-American UCLA students in over 30 years.
Why is this? Because failed public education systems hinder the race-neutrality of “percentage plans” for university admission, making plans like Florida’s Talented 20 an entirely ineffective alternative to race-conscious affirmative action. Leading education researchers have found that African-American, Latino and Native American students receive the least support in the public school system across the country. And school districts in the most impoverished areas have teachers and principals with significantly lower qualifications than those serving higher income areas. Poor districts are often made up of as many as three-quarters minority students who live at or below the poverty line.
But according to Connerly, leveling the playing field is not the point. As he understands it, affirmative action policies allow race to matter and “if we let race matter, then we’ll never move towards an America that can get beyond race.” Moving beyond race is a laudable goal; an ideal that affirmative action supporters would agree is at the core of our struggle toward diversity. But Connerly finds fault with the black community itself rather than a corrupted system, claiming it is up to them to get their kids through high school and “adapt to the changes in American life” rather than “perpetuating paranoia that their President won’t move fast enough to save them in the aftermath of a hurricane.”
Obviously, despite their claims to the contrary, race does matter to the anti-affirmative action establishment. It’s no mistake that Connerly, who is of both African and Native American descent, has been christened by his white supporters as the African American community’s most important leader. He’s “clean and articulate,” Roger Clegg, the president of the misnamed Center for Equal Opportunity, pointed out in a not so tasteful reference to Sen. Joe Biden’s Obama slip-up, when inviting Connerly to the podium. He’s also willing to claim minority status while at the same time dismissing twentieth century American history as “the oppression of blacks…yeah, we all know that.”
The work of the anti-affirmative action contingent has not “hastened the transition from a race-conscious society to one where race has no place in American life or law,” as Connerly once claimed it would. And it won’t. But it will end diversity on more major university campuses—if progressives don’t mobilize and stop him.
Lauren Dunn is a special assistant to the executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress. In February 2006, she received a B.A. in comparative religion from Tufts University and a B.F.A. in studio art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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compelling article and issues—- i’d like to know more about the his personal development of such ardently critical views.
— lisa - Mar 15, 03:02 PM - #When an educated black man trashes the notion of blacks always needing special treatment, the liberal establishment steps into high gear. I have 2 gifted children, both raised in rural white areas. Their educ. was as neglected as the “poorer” translation:black/hispanic) kids’. However, nobody cared about that. So, I happen to agree with Mr. Conerly. Parents need to teach their kids, regardless of what the schools are doing. I applaud Ward Conerly & stand by him.
— kathy - Mar 16, 04:23 PM - #If the public school system is broken, why admit unprepared people into university so they can waste their money trying to learn things at a level they are not ready for?? Fix the problem first. Once all high schools are giving the same level of education, there will be no need for affirmative action. Race should never have to be an issue. Think about all the majority who are fully prepared for a higher education, but are denied enrollment because someone who is under prepared and allowed enrollment only based on ethnicity? Affirmative action is a waste of everyones time and money.
— bill f - Mar 16, 04:25 PM - #I disagree with only one thing in this article. That is the statement, “...failed public education systems hinder the race-neutrality of “percentage plans” for university admission…”
The public education system is only failing African Americans, other minorities, and the poor. It has been rigged that way.
Despite the prearranged barrier, the “top 10% entrance rule” (though far inferior to REAL Affirmative Action) is tying a knot in conservative tails here in Texas! As bad as the Texas Legislature and the Texas Education Agency has arranged for minority and poor schools to be, some students from those schools are getting in ahead of white students in the affluent schools who are NOT in the top 10% and who do not have SAT scores high enough to get them in. This is driving our remaining segregationists and virulent race baiters (more or less the Texas Republican Party) CRAZY!
Contrary to Ward’s* “plans” the segregationists are still losing the battle here in Texas, just by less than they were losing with a REAL Affirmative Action plan.
You can’t keep minority and poor students down. They are ALWAYS smarter than their white, close-minded, segregationist opponents!
*I deliberately call Mr. Connerly by his first name as the segregationists here in Texas still do with “Niggers” like him. They still use that word here in Texas, and if you challenge them they claim they don’t have to be “Politically Correct!” Nevermind that in the ’50’s “Politically Correct” meant segregated schools, restaurants, transportation waiting rooms, and even drinking fountains. Ward should be so proud!
— hterrya - Mar 16, 04:26 PM - #I am a strong proponent of equality for ALL. That being said, the harsh realities of the world require people who are being mistreated to stand up for themselves. If you want change, you have to fight for it. No one is going to give you a free ride. This is true in any facet of life. If you want better education, you have to go for it. If people are giving you the shitty end of the stick, stand up and yell, eventually other will join your cause.
— bill f - Mar 16, 04:33 PM - #I dont know a lot about ward connerly iv,e heard a little,i like the man what a concept getting past race,lol & judge a man by the content of his character not the color of his or her skin Mr. Connerly please run 4 president
— t0m mcginn - Mar 16, 05:37 PM - #Mr Connerly is a “minority” in self denial, and twisted in his own mind. He left the segregated south for California and quickly picked up “majority” supporters, which he has used towards his own financial benefit, when he adopted the social position he “preaches” today. How many minority friends does he have or even know today?? Does he even acknowledge he’s from Louisianna, let alone his relatives he left behind?? He is from a dysfunctional background perpetrated by southern racism. The answer to improving education for minorities in America is commitment of resources and highly qualified teachers and school administrators. Why does Connerly attack universities and not launch a national effort to improve public schools? This dude is an idiot and his vision is twisted because I believe he hates minorities (including his past), and he has a personal agenda which is eating away at his soul. He doesn’t see the big picture, how utterly sad.
— Darryl - Mar 16, 07:55 PM - #Ward Connelly is an abberation. Work to disempower him. He has received far too much attention.
— Pamela McGhee - Mar 16, 08:08 PM - #Guys, Connerly just wants people to look inside a person rather than out. The statement posted by Darryl that “he [Connerly] hates minorities (including his past), and he has a personal agenda which is eating away at his soul,” is extremely presumptuous and ridiculous. If anything, Connerly is trying to empower minorities to raise their standards. To make them actually work to deserve a shot at want they want. What can be more self-satisfying? One last thing, Ms. Dunn you hide behind a Progressive label, but it looks to me like you are selling yourself and, more importantly, others short.
— Gavin - Mar 17, 12:48 AM - #Gavin – Mar 17, 12:48 AM – says:
“...Connerly is trying to empower minorities to raise their standards.”
To quote you, that statement by you “...is extremely presumptuous and ridiculous. “
Nobody can know what Ward’s REAL agenda is, and that includes YOU, Gavin!
What Ward has DONE is make it harder for minorities to enter university. Whether he intended that result or not might be “extremely presumptuous and ridiculous” to say.
However, it would NOT be “extremely presumptuous and ridiculous” to say that the racist NeoCons Ward pals around with DID, in fact, wanted exactly THAT result.
NeoCons are so transparent in their hates and in their agendas. They remind me of the segregationists I’ve known here in Texas. Wait! They ARE the segregionists I’ve known here in Texas!
— hterrya - Mar 17, 01:56 AM - #As a former admissions officer at Tufts University (1987-89), I continue to be amazed at the entrenched racism in US society and commitment to white supremacy. I invite people to read “When Affirmative Action Was White” by Ira Katznelson and “Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination” by Scott Plous. The special treatment and preferences in employment and educaitonal opportunity given to white people continues. However, the real issue is not only racial preference and discrimination, but the larger mechanism of neoliberal ideology in which “merit” and “opportunity” unfold. The intersections of race, class and gender cannot be overlooked when discussing issues of access, merit, and outcomes. Yes, we need to improve the system, but as Ms. Dunn reveals, we must ask deeper questions about the ideology and popular myths that maintain inequality and oppression.
— Parker Johnson - Mar 17, 04:18 AM - #The idea of Affirmative Action always includes that it is a temporary measure. But as long as we as individuals subscribe to
— Frank Lornitzo - Mar 17, 12:30 PM - #imposing on someone the bum rap of their birth appearance data will show injustice. That includes the myths of “white supremacy” first adopted by the Puritan invaders, and continuing by that inward
plea “help me get rid of that guilt trip”
Ward Connerly has made it easier for minorities and people of diverse backgrounds to get into public universities here in California, not less.
In fact, the populations of UCLA, UC Berkeley, etc. have become far more diverse since Ward Connerly ended affirmative action here.
— Joe - Mar 18, 02:44 PM - #Affirmative action is a way out for faculty from responsibility. For years now I tutored at communbity colleges to help especially order minority students who came to appreciate the value of higher ed skills to employment. Itt usually took my students over a decade to realize that “screwing around” in college, treating it as a “social experience” leads to economic catastrophe. By then they are in hoc for a decade paying back now high interest student loans. Yet, they come to college totally unprepared in language, logic and math. They come devoid of study habits. It seems to be because there is an uploading of education in these fields, instead of a front loading that gives them the skills in early age when their minds are most pliable. There’s no reason for a student to come to college for intro to algebra and never to learn calculus. Calculus can be learned gradually in elementary school as a habit before high school. Bythe end of high school Americans, like the rest of the world, should have finished with “general education” and should proceed to professional education, so that they learn skills that will pay off tuition from graduation on. But even a PhD does not prepare you for much.
A lot of “higfher education” is abuse as a “pair of hands” for an institution where you “intern.”
On avarage, white parents can afford to cushion their kids even into their thirties at home and to cover their tuition. But minority parents just can’t. As a result, we may have a lot of higher ed grads who can’t get jobs as in the Arab World, where they turn into suicide bombers in shame. Affirmative Action is only a bandade that allows higher ed faculty to drop minority students never taught how to swim into the middle of the ocean— shark bate if they don’t become sharks!
We must put resources frontloaded in pedagogic skills to make minority pupils competitive by the end of public education….Allowing them into college by skin color only sets them up for failure by disregarding both their inadequacy and the responsibility of their schools for their inadequacy. Connely shares my view: longer school day, longer school year for kids whose parents agree because they can’t provide adequate supervision and discipline. The issue is not cotodial imprisonment but pedagogic joy through discipline that are frontloaded. That’s why he won’t go for passing the buck up to college through affirmative action. As the product of such a system in post WW II West Europe, I applaud him!
— DE Teodoru - Mar 19, 12:16 AM - #In France they have no affirmitive action . Their kids led riots for days . America will be next if Connely has his way . He is disgrace to his race. My parents told mew I could be anything I wanted to be when I grew up.
— jacqueline grant - Mar 19, 09:25 AM - #But you have to force people to let Blacks marry their daughters ,but they’ll just give us jobs. Yea right.
I honestly think that affirmative action is valid and necessary, but I also think that it should be applied according to socioeconomic status rather than according to race alone. As noted in the article, a disproportionate percentage of poor children are also minorities – therefore it makes sense that if all poor students were considered for affirmative action (not considering race) then more minority students would still be helped by the program. I think that the current system does help some minorities in need, but it also tends to help richer minority students who may have gotten a good high-school education and have enough money to attend college. I don’t agree with Connorly completely by any means, but I wonder if the affirmative action system should be re-evaluated to consider socioeconomic status more strongly than race alone.
— Shayna - Mar 19, 12:47 PM - #Thank you, Shayna, for saying what I couldn’t believe hadn’t been mentioned yet in this debate.
Does anyone know of any movement to replace (instead of remove) race-based affirmative action with a similar system based on socio-economic status? If we got that going, it could decimate Connerly’s movement’s claim on “civil rights” and the charges of hypocrisy that he directs at lefty affirmative action supporters.
— Michael - Mar 22, 06:01 PM - #How nice (and Orwellian) to call government-sanctioned racism “affirmative action.” These discriminatory policies not only fail to solve any problems, but are blatant racism! Recently there has been consternation in the black community because many “blacks” being accepted into U.S. colleges are from Africa or the Carribean, not the U.S. So are the best interests of people being served or should we additionally discriminate against one’s national origin as well? Of course I cannot say for certain what Ward Connerly’s “agenda” is, but I can attest that “affirmative action” is nothing but a blatant on-the-books racist policy that in the end will fail because it is unconstitutional.
— S. Palmer - May 8, 04:53 PM - #This may be helpful for planning your black history program on education.
— valerie Andrews - Oct 13, 11:17 AM - #