Know Your Right-Wing Speakers: Ward Connerly
Monday December 4, 2006
If you’ve heard Ward Connerly speak, chances are you’ve heard the story of a plucky kid growing up poor and pulling himself out of poverty. Back in 1957, he was an ambitious college student, one of only 50 African-American students on a campus of 2000. He was the first to pledge the all-white Delta Phi Omega fraternity at Sacramento State. He was elected student body president. He was the outspoken leader of the student committee against housing discrimination.
 Fast forward to 2005: Ward Connerly is a millionaire businessman and the leading African-American opponent of affirmative action (or maybe tied with Justice Clarence Thomas). He is well-funded, especially by those monsters of conservative wealth and power, the Bradley, Scaife and Olin foundations. The Bradley Foundation, which has spawned several storefront organizations dedicated to eradicating racial justice programs, awarded Connerly a $250,000 prize this year, separate from the $1 million in compensation he received as compensation in 2004. Thomas L. Rhodes, the chair of the board of the Bradley Foundation, makes no bones about Connerly’s role in these organizations—he told Connerly after their victory on Proposition 209 outlawing affirmative action in California, “Ward…[racial] preferences need to be challenged nationally, and I believe you are the man to do it.”
Connerly’s tireless efforts have helped the right wing make great strides in the battle against what many African-American leaders from Colin Powell to Al Sharpton say is still necessary to level the playing field for people of color in education and employment. NAACP Chairman Julian Bond has said that Connerly has made “a lucrative multi-million dollar career fighting fairness.”
Since the words “affirmative action” were first uttered by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 with regard to civil rights, the term has endured a long history of debate and controversy. After years of efforts by Connerly and his allies to fight affirmative action in the courts and legislatures, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 2003 landmark decision, ruled that affirmative action in university admissions is not only constitutional, but encourages ‘cross-racial understanding,’ serves to break down racial stereotypes, and strengthens our economy and society. Many business leaders, military leaders, and others had urged the court to uphold affirmative action. But Connerly remains adamant in his bitter opposition.
Connerly’s transition from campus civil rights supporter to the man he is today began soon after he graduated from college. Connerly’s views veered sharply to the right, and as other young African-Americans raised their fists in black solidarity, Connerly was wooed by the rhetoric of Barry Goldwater. He became outspoken on the need for blacks to assimilate, or, as he later put it, “Reveling in blackness—black is beautiful, black power, black consciousness—just creates an invisible wall of difference that sets us apart.”
Not long after his Goldwater conversion, Connerly was launched into the lucrative real estate business with help from Pete Wilson, the future governor of California. In 1968, when Wilson was just a young legislator from San Diego and the newly appointed chairman of the Assembly Committee on Urban Affairs and Housing, he made Connerly his chief consultant. It was in this role that Connerly is accused of having gotten his leg up out of his own poverty by pushing others deeper into theirs. As one respected African-American journalist has said of Connerly, “If Ward Connerly attacks a program or institution, you can be assured that it is serving a valuable purpose for African Americans.” In this case, the institution Connerly attacked was public housing – Connerly worked with Wilson on a plan to give low-income tenants ownership of their blighted public housing developments, and in so doing, turned them into their own slumlords. The plan allowed the city to increase its tax base and renounce its obligation to provide low-income housing, and the tenants, without adequate support, were saddled with maintenance, insurance, and upkeep of the tear-downs.
By 1973, on Wilson’s advice, Connerly decided to abandon his government employment to open his own consulting and land-use planning company. It thrived, and he spent the next 20 years building his fortune and his political cause.
In 1993, Connerly’s connections (and over $70,000 in donations to Wilson’s campaigns) paid off and Connerly was appointed to the Board of Regents of the University of California. It was during his tenure on the Board (from which he stepped down in January 2005) that Connerly first took on affirmative action with both barrels loaded. His mission was to rid the university system of preferential treatment for minorities. In 1997—on the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Connerly announced the establishment of the American Civil Rights Institute. Serving as chairman of the California Civil Rights Initiative campaign (Proposition 209), he led the effort that overturned affirmative action in California state government.
In conjunction with the ACRI, also in 1997, he co-founded the American Civil Rights Coaltion (ACRC) as the 501©(4) lobbying and initiative-introducing wing of the ACRI.
In 1997 and 1999, Connerly took his anti-affirmative action road show to Houston and Florida. He was defeated in Houston. In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush beat him to the punch by issuing an executive order to ban many affirmative action programs, making Connerly’s ballot initiative irrelevant.
Connerly has publicly patted himself on the back for the great success he has achieved all on his own – his is the glory of a self-made businessman; he is living, breathing proof that affirmative action is superfluous. That is, of course, until you dig a little deeper to find that because of certain laws and regulations, Connerly has from time to time certified his company as a minority business.
On a power high from his victory with Proposition 209, Connerly helped put Proposition 54 on the California ballot in 2003. Titled the “Racial Privacy Initiative” and hyped with deceptive promises of “eliminating racial discrimination,” Prop 54 would have actually banned the state from collecting racial data, effectively making it impossible to prosecute racial discrimination claims in California. It also would have made it impossible for the state to collect racial data for determining health treatment, which caused three former U.S. surgeons general to oppose the bill. Not only was the initiative defeated, but Connerly was recently fined $95,000 for violating campaign finance laws and was forced to reveal the names of Prop 54’s key financial backers. The all-stars (all big names from the vast right-wing network) are Joseph Coors, the beer magnate and founding partner of the Heritage Foundation, with $250,000, and Rupert Murdoch, emperor of Fox News, with $300,000. The disclosure of Connerly’s financial backers was forced under a legal settlement with California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, after the latter filed a class-action suit on behalf of six organizations, including the League of Women Voters of California and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. The settlement does demonstrate that conservative warriors can be held accountable. Connerly is still determined, however. Despite the fact that his top contributors to the campaign were conservative white industrialists whose wealth and power would seem to contradict Connerly’s underdog stance in the court case, his apparently unironic response to the settlement was to say, "There reaches a point where David has to give in to Goliath. That’s really the essence of it." So much for deconstructing the notion of black victimhood.
Connerly often garners criticism for distorting the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. in seeking to lend credibility to his own misguided platform. Connerly frequently touts Martin Luther King’s quote “judge me not by the color of my skin, but by the content of my character” as a statement against affirmative action. Connerly has sifted through King’s entire philosophy for a single quote taken out of context and then used it to push his own agenda, almost always to the detriment of the constituency King represented.
In 2003, the ACRC officially moved into Michigan. Joining forces with Jennifer Gratz and Barbara Grutter, the plaintiffs in the two major Supreme Court affirmative action cases, Connerly led the campaign to effectively end all affirmative action-related programs in the state. Gratz became the executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) Coalition. In July 2003, Connerly and Gratz began a misleading campaign to collect signatures for the MCRI, asking voters to sign for a 2006 ballot initiative for “civil rights.” In November 2006, the 10-year anniversary of the passage of Proposition 209 in California, Connerly added Michigan to his list of victories. The MCRI, also known as Proposal 2, sought to eliminate (1) housing and lending programs that worked to end discrimination, (2) education scholarships for women and minorities (including the LGBT community), and (3) programs that helped women achieve equal pay in Michigan. Everyone from Republican candidate for governor Dick DeVos to Democrat Jennifer Granholm and religious, community, and business groups came together to urge Michigan voters to say "No on 2," and opponents built a diverse 200-member coalition, supported by the Leadership Council on Civil Rights and known as One United Michigan. But Connerly and his cohorts prevailed.
An article in the Los Angeles Times suggests several states as sites for Connerly’s next efforts. Some predict Wisconsin is where it’s at, while the L.A. Times suggesta Oregon, Nevada, or Utah.
Quotes:
"Supporting segregation need not be racist. One can believe in segregation and believe in equality of the races."
-CNN’s “Wolf Blitzer Reports” 12/13/2002
“Let us not put ointment on the wound of race, let us cut it out of the body politic like the cancer that it is.” – 1/2/2003, in a column defending Trent Lott’s infamous Strom Thurmond quotes
"The terrible truth is that the black establishment has become intensely partisan, intolerant, self-centered, power-crazy, vindictive, mean-spirited. This establishment must be confronted, not accommodated." – 12/18/2000
“Blacks are the only voters in America who stoutly defend race preferences and who apply a litmus test to candidates on the basis of that issue. But Republicans never pass muster with blacks anyway—so what have we got to lose?”
(Ibid.)
“When more black people recognize that the quality of their children’s education and the bite of their taxes are far more important than the remote possibility of being the victim of a ‘hate crime,’ they will seriously consider the Republican party.”
(Ibid.)
“Every day that I speak out as an ordinary citizen, I do so as a product, a disciple, of that Reagan revolution — a revolution that produced a band of citizens at Americans for Tax Reform, American Enterprise Institute, Empower America, Claremont Institute, CATO Institute, Heritage Foundation, Manhattan Institute, Hoover Institution, the Young America’s Foundation, and a host of other think tanks, talk show hosts, and activist organizations dedicated to making America better by completing the Reagan Revolution.”
-Remarks at the Reagan Presidential Library, 3/23/2000
“In California, this is no longer about race … It’s about ethnicity, and those of Mexican descent will soon be a majority … They don’t want to see those categories go … They want to see affirmative action policies remain so they can take advantage of them. They want to claim minority status when, in fact, they will soon be a majority in California. They want to hide behind the term ‘Latino’ and ‘people of color,’ but most of them check the ‘white’ box [on the census form] anyway.” – 7/8/2003
In 2003, in an interview related to Prop. 54 in California, Connerly said: "I don’t care whether they are segregated or not. ... Kids need to be learning, and I place more value on these kids getting educated than I do on whether we have some racial balancing or not."
In an ad against the MCRI, after the announcer explains that "the only entity that’s endorsed the MCRI is the Ku Klux Klan," the ad cuts to a shot of Connerly stating: “If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right, God bless them! Thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are being applied instead of hate.”
Illustration: August J. Pollak
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Comments
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This article is shameful. People of color do not need preferences and it’s a insult to infer otherwise. It seems you’re saying that descimination if bad unless it favors US.
— Rufus Monk - Dec 13, 06:54 PM - #The writer of this article needs to take a second look at his or her motives. Like the union movement, affirmative action has outlived its usefulness in this society. The majority of those admitted to the UC system under racial preferences found themselves struggling to maintain the academic standards of the schools to which they were accepted and ended up needing remedial assistance and generally dropping out. Wouldn’t they have been better served in the community college system than feeling like losers by having to drop out of schools for which they weren’t prepared or qualified?
The problem with those who fight for affirmative action is that they don’t see that they are telling minorities that they are not capable of competing on their own and that they can’t make it without the assistance of others.
People are most successful when they pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and decide on their own what it is that they want to do with their lives.
— J. Persico - Jan 10, 03:26 PM - #Our reason for optimism was all the more reasonable when placed in the context that the Supreme Court is often described as a “conservative” court and the decisions would be rendered during an era in which there is a conservative Republican president and Republicans control both houses of Congress. Conditions were ideal for the country to make a clean break with race preferences.
— Christopher Cooper - Jan 28, 12:21 PM - #I wonder how many anti affirmative action people made a stink before the superwealthy white industrialists made it a big problem? As my grandfather says, follow the money trail. if Ward got his money from coretta scott king, maybe he’s doing something good for america. but he is literally making money by reactively attacking affirmative and a poor education system at the head rather than at the root. if we properly educated our children so they didn’t need a leg up to get into college, yes, then we could eliminate affirmative action.
— matt steele - Feb 14, 09:45 PM - #Is Ward Connerly the nigger from another planet? Apparently he favors affirmative action for one: Himself. And anyone who cannot see that is what Connerly is doing, is as STUPID as he is. We will stop needing affirmative when I stop being the ONLY black at most of the business functions I attend.
— Bob Smith - Feb 15, 12:17 AM - #The government has no business giving preferential treatment to anybody, regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, etc. You leftists gripe about right-wingers trying to legislate morality, but your hypocrisy in this regard shines as clear as day when you speak positively of affirmative action.
— Will Jolly - Apr 2, 01:22 AM - #EXCELLENT article! This provided some really in-depth and revealing information that ALL Americans should know when confronted with this subject. As a light-skinned Black American, I am strongly pro-affirmative action. For years, White males earned a quiet form of “affirmative action” or what many would call unearned privilege. They would get top positions, entry into the best schools, the choice to raise their families in any neighborhood they chose simply because of their race. When this unearned privilege was going on, very few members of the White establishement raised words of protest against it. It was accepted as a way of life. But when civil rights advances were made by African-Americans, and they too gained the opportunity of good schools, jobs, and a higher quality of life through much needed programs, there suddenly became a controversial “problem”. I disagree in every way, shape, and form with what is called the “Racial Privacy Initiative”. Racial data NEEDS to be collected on Americans for a wide variety of important reasons—everything from being able to prosecute the perpetrators of hate crimes to keeping diversity prevalent within schools. And what some Americans fail to understand is that affirmative action is far from affecting Whites negatively in any way and it is not even strictly oriented towards Black Americans only.
#1 White Americans have lost next to nothing with what gains African-Americans have made from affirmative action programs. Generally, Whites still make a higher salary than many Black Americans and they are certainly not being politically or socially disenfranchised by affirmative action. Many Whites still hold the most lucrative positions, live in some of the best neighborhoods in the country, and attend some of the best schools in the country. They’re not losing much of any privileges.
#2 Affirmative action helps many women, gay individuals, American Indians, and other historically disenfranchised communities. It’s not STRICTLY Black.
Bottom line, Whites have nothing to lose with the sustainment of affirmative action programs and racial data collection, but minorities have MUCH to lose!
— Victoria Grace - Apr 21, 07:22 AM - #Is their anywhere else on earth, or in the history of mankind, where an individual who was in the MINORTY took up a cause to assist a MAJORITY to rid the minorty of a societal preference? Was there ONE South African white who sought to keep other white Africanna’s from preference in attending a college, obtaining a job or entering the government? Is there an Arab living in Israel attempting to thwart Arab’s from any preference’s in Israel?
Connerly is on a mission, a mission bought and paid for by one of the same groups that funded the Bell Curve. Can his message be trusted?
— P. Anthony Allen - Apr 25, 10:37 PM - #I am happy that affirmative action does not exist in Canada. It is a perfect example of what happens when bleeding heart liberalism takes precedence over simple common sense. Do you truly think that continuing to single out the myriad minority groups that exist helps to further their cause in any way? Sure, it will help some gain access to colleges and jobs they wouldn’t have otherwise; whilst in the process fostering resentment among their peers due to the fact that more qualified applicants were denied for fear of reprisal from special interest groups. Yes I know, now many will say, “but a lot of qualified people are discriminated against based on their race/gender/sexual orientation etc.”. I’m not suggesting at all that discrimination does not still exst today, but do minorities truly want a leg up in the world because it was GIVEN to them? If they do, then they are beyond any sort of rational help, because clearly they expect success to be handed to them and anyone who has spent a few years in the real world knows that for the vast majority of people success is earned, not given. But thanks to special interest groups, it’s almost become a given that as a member of a minority you expect things to be given to you, because if they aren’t, you’re being discriminated against. These myriad groups are all being set up for failure due to unrealistic expectations heaped upon them by bleeding hearts who constantly tell them everyone else is to blame for their failure except themselves. All AA does is continue to enforce this well-meaning but ultimately harmful philosophy. Any fool should be able to understand that only hard work, discipline, intelligence and common sense will get you places in the world.
— A Canadian - Apr 28, 01:38 PM - #In writing this, I am well-aware that the largely leftist bent on Campus Progress will not agree with me. “Oh, a white Canadian guy. What could he know about discrimination?” I know I grew up dirt poor with an alcoholic father and non-religious in a massively religious town with a piss-poor public education system. But hey, I’m white so I still enjoyed more advantages. Right.
I have a successful career, a beautiful wife and my third child on the way. I earned every single one of those things without ANY sort of a handout or special preference. I don’t think I’m special because of that either, but for some reason people think it’s a big accomplishment. It’s not. I’‘m only doing what any man or woman worth their salt should do. I’ll say it one last time. Nothing will ever be handed to you on a silver platter (Hltons and Trumps of the world aside). Given everything, you will appreciate nothing, so if you want something, damn well go out and get it and stop blaming the rest of the world for your troubles.
Long live the independent thought.
I absolutely agree with the Canadian. I’m against any laws that either especially favor or especially disparage any group of people.
— Will Jolly - May 3, 01:41 AM - #Victoria Grace mentioned that whites have lost next to nothing because of AA. I can agree with that, but she failed to mention Asians. AA does not benefit Asians which IS still a minority in this country. Since AA was eliminated in U of Cal admissions in 1997, Asian admissions went from 33% to the current level of 36%. This growth show that Asians were unfairly discriminated under AA.
— T. Chan - May 11, 07:14 PM - #T. Chan—about your response to Victoria Grace, please do your homework and know of what you say before you post it. Asians DO benefit from Affirmative Action. But don’t just take my word for it. Here, read the facts from Asians themselves:
http://www.aaldef.org/affirm.php
“Asian Pacific Americans do benefit from affirmative action. For example, since California’s adoption of its civil service affirmative action program in 1977, APAs have achieved labor force parity in 11 of 19 state job categories. In San Francisco, APAs constitute more than 20% of the construction contractors, but in 1989 received only 1% of the construction contracts. In 1993, after the city implemented an affirmative action program, APA contractors were awarded nearly three times the contract dollars previously awarded to them.”
“As Asian Pacific Americans, we often are used to show that people of color do not need affirmative action programs. We are placed in what law professor Mari Matsuda calls the “racial middle.” Matsuda writes, “The role of the racial middle is a critical one. It can reinforce white supremacy if the middle deludes itself into thinking it can be just like white if it tries hard enough. Conversely, the middle can dismantle white supremacy if it refuses to be the middle, if it refuses to buy into racial hierarchy, if it refuses to abandon communities of Black and Brown people, choosing instead to form alliances with them…”
As Asian Pacific Americans living in a diverse, multiracial, multiethnic, and multilingual society, we need to be concerned about issues of social justice. We know firsthand that racism and discrimination still exist in America, and we have a responsibility to exercise leadership and utilize all tools to fight against that. Affirmative action is one of those important tools.”
(Read more at their site)
http://www.aaldef.org/affirm.php
— J. Caradine - May 12, 10:57 PM - #J. Caradine-I did my homework. My example supports my belief that Asians do not benefits from AA. Opinions from sources you pointed out do not change my belief. Asians benefited the most when the selection criteria is colorless. I do believe racism & discrimination still exist in America, but we do not need AA. AA is discrimination. Fighting discrimination with discrimination is not the right answer.
— T. Chan - May 14, 03:53 PM - #If you indeed do believe that racism & discrimination still exists in America, then continuing Affirmative Action programs is simply the compassionate and humane response to these types of evil. It was the Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ who said, “I require mercy, not sacrifice.” I think that saying speaks volumes.
— Joan Caradine - Jun 13, 01:09 AM - #Affirmative action being referred to as “discrimination” is something I simply don’t understand and can never agree with.
It was “DISCRIMINATION” when Black Americans were systematically forbidden to enroll in certain universities and obtain an equal amount of the white-collar jobs in this nation that their white counterparts had. A Black person with a college education in 1932 would in many cases be forcibly relegated to a janitorial or at the very best train porter position, where a White man with a high-school degree could work himself up to being a business executive or even head of a corporation. There are MANY such cases; all anyone has to do is pick up a book about the history of this systematic segregation and denial of opportunities.
Affirmative action programs might not be “perfect” but what is? It doesn’t HAVE to be perfect in order to provide needed opportunities for African-Americans, women, gay individuals, Asians, Latinos, American Indians and other historically disenfranchied groups. Since these programs were put into place in the 1960’s, Black Americans have for instance, been able to walk through doors that had previously been locked shut and guarded with pit bulls! College enrollment has become much higher since we people of color have known that there are many more colleges & universities that are welcoming to us. Black people have been able to obtain positions that were unthinkable 50 years ago, and the White community, by and large has not been as vastly affected as some White individuals have said. As I said before, White Americans are largely untouched by any advancements Black people have made because of affirmative action programs. They still have the lions share of wealth and influence in this country. So I don’t understand these opportunities the Black community has been able to obtain compared to the “lions share” of what White society has should be denied to them. What is exactly the PROBLEM of affirmative action programs? It doesn’t hurt anyone—it helps. And without it, I dare say the gates could be thrown open for return, maybe harder than ever, to the days of when White society constantly shut out, denied, and attempted to prevent Black America from sharing in all the wealth of this country. I’ll also say that not all White people want to see affirmative action be discontinued, not by a long shot. There are plenty of White supporters of these programs, such as Paul Kivel who is part of a pro-affirmative action group called “Angry White Guys for Affirmative Action”. Check out his article called “Affirmative Action for White Men?” which mentions many of the exact same things I was talking about.
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/pkivel4.html
— Victoria Grace - Jun 15, 07:00 PM - #I first encountered racism when I was in the military. I was tied for an academic award for valedictorian of our class with two weeks to go. The guy I was tied with scored better than me on the next test. The final test I surpassed him and had the overall highest average. Yet the award was given to the other guy because they decided after the fact to not factor in the last test. This pattern carried out as I was in a specialty school and looking forward to a much anticipated football Saturday. There were fifty plus guys in the room watching the game when one guy comes in and changes the channel. I then took a quick poll and over 90% of the room wanted football so I turned back to the game. The guy went down to the Officer of the Deck for the day and complained. I was written up and the channel changed. The pattern carried on as I applied for a FBI internship. I had a 4.0 average in college, double major, United States veteran honorably discharged with excellent evaluations. I had the scholarship (one given per state). Then was stripped because a 19 year old was given the scholarship with far less credentials. This pattern played out again 2 years after my graduation and desire to work for the Federal government.
It’s very interesting how people believe Affirmative Action doesn’t hurt. I have seen time and time again when I am judged by the color of my skin not the strength of my character. Does a Janet Reno policy that dictates 50% of applicants submitted for final approval must be minority seem equal? How about the underlying military theme where the platform is skewed to reflect minorities in the best light regardless of circumstances? I grew up a poor white male in Illinois and we will never be equal unless we strive for equality in everything we do. Why is ethnicity listed on everything we do? Many will say it’s to ensure fairness but the reporting itself promotes separation. Whenever we separate, we segregate; when ever we segregate we discriminate. I grew up in an almost all minority neighbor. I was the only white blond haired blue eyed boy around. I was never treated with anything but respect and as an equal. I understand that had I been black in an all white neighborhood I more than likely would not have the same experience. One of the most profound things in my life was reading and listening to the recordings of Martin Luther King Jr. Here is a man who first hand saw the horrors or racial prejudice that I will never experience in my life. He did not waiver from his belief that all men are created equal. That we have to envision equality in everything or it never will be. We don’t need programs which give advantage we need programs the get everyone to level playing field. You don’t need a head start in a race; you just need to make sure your shoes aren’t tied together when the race starts. Ward Connerly’s quote seemed to be out of context. He doesn’t care about segregation he cares about equality, this is the issue. The California State requirements giving the nod for 15% of contracts to go to minority contracts hurt him. He got the 15% but the requirement hurt his chance of getting the 100% because his firm was viewed as inferior and need the preference. Mr. Connerly wanted to be judged purely on the strength of his company regardless of the skin color of the owner. My message is please view us all as a whole. When you are looking at your agenda if you leave one person out then change it. Dr. King wanted to see everyone sit down at one table, not tables.
— Shane Cooper - Sep 30, 11:19 AM - #Mr. Ward is a Black Racist Against His Own People. Bottom Line. He’s A SELLOUT.
— Mr. Gangsta - Nov 1, 07:58 PM - #Affirmative action is merely meant to ensure opportunity to a section of people that were denied it for 300-400 yrs… to even the playing field.
This quote by #14 says it all “#
If you indeed do believe that racism & discrimination still exists in America, then continuing Affirmative Action programs is simply the compassionate and humane response to these types of evil. It was the Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ who said, “I require mercy, not sacrifice.” I think that saying speaks volumes.”
RACISM ISNT OVERT ANYMORE.. ITS COVERT... AFFIRMATIVE ACTION UNDERCUTS COVERT DISCRIMINATION.
— D J - Mar 8, 01:34 PM - #One thing that I think this article totally neglects to mention what Ward Connerly is doing is not a black/white issue… this Goldwater Initiative, which he is only going to conservative states to initiate, is not only affecting college campuses but every projected group, excluding the white male. The biggest group marginally being affected are white women, especially white women business owners who are federally funded. He is going state to these conservative states which is an ingenious tactic, because conservative states already don’t want to pay for education or other federal programs that benefit the “community” or “diversity initiatives”. The biggest misconception about affirmative action is that there is some magic “quota” that has to be filled with a certain amount of minority, when I say minority I am including white women, on their campus. Incorrect. Affirmative action is looking at two people who are equal or have the upper hand in opposing areas and taking the less seen advocate on your campus to fill the last position. Being a black woman I know that using this tatic is idealistically unrealistic. Wherever I work I know that I will be the minority in the company and that the world does not work to be diverse. This initiative though is not soley in schools, but everywhere all non-profit organization that help minorities are being directly affected… this article only looked at one aspect of a multi-facited issue, this initiative is not a race issue. Ward Connerly, is a black man who feels as though affirmative action has reached its leashes end. I agree with him about the anti-affirmative action movement in schools but the route in which he is affecting all minorities, scholastically and in the business world just shows how much of a scorned man he is.
— Rebecca - Mar 13, 01:38 PM - #He’s an Uncle Tom. He’s playing into white folks fears so that he can make money off of them and he doesn’t care what he does to black folks, because as I said, HE IS AN UNCLE TOM!
— Maria - Mar 25, 01:09 PM - #“Affirmative action is merely meant to ensure opportunity to a section of people that were denied it for 300-400 yrs… to even the playing field.” You mean playing field from 300 years ago? This is a rather pathetic ad hominem article. Affirmative action is by definition discrimination on the basis of race. Whoever supports it is a racist. It’s that simple.
— emeritus - Mar 28, 05:44 PM - #It was unfair to tell a young black man that he can’t drink from a water foundtain because he was black and it’s wrong to tell a young white student that she can’t be accepted to a university because she is white. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
— Amy - May 2, 04:33 PM - #It was unfair to tell a young black man that he can’t drink from a water fountain because he was black and it’s wrong to tell a young white student that she can’t be accepted to a university because she is white. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
— Amy - May 2, 04:33 PM - #Black people should March on Washington and demand that the lawmakers that that believe that blacks are not as capable as whites and should be held to a lower standard resign
— Derek Sagner - May 27, 08:59 PM - #What a hypocritcal rant! Connerly a hateful man? The hate just drips from this purportedly “factual” journalistic piece.
Ironically, the author ( what’s his/her name?) commits the very sin that he/she accuses Ward Connerly of: citing out-of-context quotes from Ward Connerly’s writings/speeches/interviews to support his/her argument that Mr. Connerly is a racist.
I see nothing “progressive” in this one-sided piece on Ward Connerly. It sets out to prove the man to be “evil”, but it fails miserably in doing so.
— Dr. Sylvia Wasson - Jul 13, 06:31 PM - #