Drives in 5 States Target Affirmative Action
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Intent on dismantling affirmative action, activists in five states have launched a coordinated drive to cut off tax dollars for programs that offer preferential treatment based on race or gender.
The campaign aims to put affirmative action bans on the November ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The effort is being organized by California consultant Ward Connerly, who has successfully promoted similar measures in California, Michigan and Washington.
Supporters of affirmative action say the initiatives will be hard to block, given that Connerly has a proven ability to raise funds and persuade voters, even in more liberal states.
“They’ve targeted states where there’s a white majority electorate and a vocal, if small, extreme anti-immigrant right wing,” said Shanta Driver, who runs By Any Means Necessary, a coalition that defends affirmative action. In such states, she said, “it’s extremely difficult for us to win.”
{snip}
If successful, the ballot measures would ban a broad range of programs designed to overcome the nation’s legacy of racism and discrimination.
{snip}
As he has in the past, Connerly is promoting the ballot measures as “civil rights initiatives.”
The wording may differ slightly from state to state, but in general the measures say: “The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any group or individual on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. . . .”
Opponents say that’s misleading because it doesn’t explicitly say that affirmative action would be banned.
{snip}
Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma recently passed tough laws aimed at stopping illegal immigrants from holding jobs or receiving government benefits. Missouri is weighing similar measures. Nationally, debate rages about illegal immigrants’ efforts to get driver’s licenses and pay in-state tuition.
A public angry at mostly Latino illegal immigrants may be in no mood to listen to arguments about a need for racial preferences.
{snip}
Connerly, who is of black, white and Native American heritage, began fighting against racial preferences as a member of the University of California Board of Regents in the mid-1990s. He has said he came to the issue after meeting with a white couple whose son had been rejected from several University of California medical schools; they believed less-qualified minority students had an unfair edge in admissions. A land-use consultant by training, Connerly now devotes himself to anti-affirmative- action campaigns.
Even after a decade, the effect of his initiatives in California and Washington is not clear-cut. Minority enrollment at public universities plunged at first but has since rebounded except at a few of the most elite campuses.
{snip}
In the economic sphere, a California Department of Transportation study last year found that based on the number of businesses owned by women and minorities, such companies should be getting 19% of state transportation contracts. In fact, their share has amounted to 11%.
To defeat Connerly’s ballot measures, his foes must use such statistics to make the case that American society is still riddled with racism and discrimination.
That’s a message voters may not want to hear. “We’d all like to think it’s hunky-dory,” said David B. Oppenheimer, a professor at Golden Gate University law school.
Significant disparities in income among races exist in all five states Connerly is targeting, with Asians on top, then whites, then Latinos, then blacks. The exception to that order is Arizona, where blacks earn more than Latinos.
{snip}
Many opponents of racial preferences say these disparities can best be addressed through aid based on economic need, not race. Carl Cohen, who teaches philosophy at the University of Michigan, says he supports mentoring programs, financial support, even preferential college admissions for the economically disadvantaged. “But to do it on the basis of the color of your skin, or the country where your grandfather happened to be born—what the hell does that have to do with anything?” he said.
In response, Oppenheimer mentions a study published a few years ago in the American Journal of Sociology. Researchers sent black and white men with nearly identical resumes to apply for hundreds of entry-level jobs. In some cases, the men were instructed to say they had spent 18 months in prison on a felony drug conviction. The results: Whites with a criminal record were more likely to be called back than blacks with no record.
{snip}
African Americans, he points out, make up 12% of the workforce. Yet they’re only 3% of the chief executives, 5% of the medical scientists and 5% of the lawyers.
Connerly responds that overt discrimination should be punished by the courts. But to presume that every minority needs special treatment is demeaning, he said. To make that point, he has turned to local activists who say they can testify to the corrosive effects of racial preference.
{snip}
Email Stephanie Simon at stephanie.simon@latimes.com.
(Posted on January 21, 2008)
Comments
*Significant disparities in income among races exist in all five states Connerly is targeting, with Asians on top, then whites, then Latinos, then blacks.*
Yet we are NEVER going to hear about economic/social measures trying to “equalise” whites with asians - will we?
Posted by Obscuratus at 5:57 PM on January 21
Ward Connerly is a good man. Hummm, radical idea. To be judged by the content of your character and you efforts and behavior rather than special “race based selection”.
Go Man, GO!
Posted by WhiteBread at 6:54 PM on January 21
African Americans, he points out, make up 12% of the workforce. Yet they’re only 3% of the chief executives, 5% of the medical scientists and 5% of the lawyers.
That’s because these jobs require real intelligence and education. Well, CEOs don’t need anything if they start the company, but to be a hired on CEO you need a bare minimum of an MBA, most CEOs have Juris Doctorates, DBAs, or PHDs. Scientists are looking at 8-12 years and lawyers, at least 6. Whites make up 66% of the population and make up 3% of the NBA, 5% of the NFL, and 5% of MLB, all of which are sports White men invented.
In response, Oppenheimer mentions a study published a few years ago in the American Journal of Sociology. Researchers sent black and white men with nearly identical resumes to apply for hundreds of entry-level jobs. In some cases, the men were instructed to say they had spent 18 months in prison on a felony drug conviction. The results: Whites with a criminal record were more likely to be called back than blacks with no record.
I think the study they’re refering to is 15 years old, I studied something like that in Sociology 101 back in 2001. That is actually a common tactic, using dated material to show disparaties, the book I used in my Managing Diversity class was from circa 1983, with studies cited all the way to the mid sixties.
Posted by PincheGabacho at 7:33 PM on January 21
Affirmative action is not wrong because it demeans inferior classes of society. It is wrong because it violates the natural law principle of freedom of association. Inferior is the key concept. Can you imagine a program designed to get more Jews in medical school simply because they are on 2% of the population?
Affirmative action is supported by the business community because it gives them legal protection against civil rights laws, which also violate one’s natural rights. Inferior classes will not make up they’re respective proportion in society in occupations requiring talent, intelligence, and character. Consequently they will be able to bring suit against others unless for discrimination, unless civil rights laws, which presumes hyper equality, are overturned, or the defendants can point to some procedure (affirmative action) they’ve followed to show they are not discriminatory.
Posted by Flamethrower at 7:47 PM on January 21
States that pass the initiative need to have a real method of enforcing the ban on ‘affirmative action’, and need to ban affirmative action in the private sector, also, for the ban to be more than a symbolic gesture.
Posted by LHathaway at 7:53 PM on January 21
I think every state but Hawaii has a white majority electorate.
Posted by St. Louis CofCC Blogmeister at 9:05 PM on January 21
I think this shows just to what extent whites have had it with blacks. The dominant view is becoming that what we do for blacks has nothing to do with crime and black failure. Instead, expect a strong emphasis on taking responsibility for one’s own behavior and only being rewarded based on merit. Anti-social behavior will be punished….harshly.
Posted by at 9:19 PM on January 21
Let us be clear about this. WITHOUT special treatment for Blacks, they will not be able to get into college. They do not have the IQ in comparison to Asians, Whites and Jews (as a group) thus without this special attention, what will we do with them?
Most of the blacks you see on a college campus would not be there if intelligence was the factor in admissions. They know it, we know it and the colleges know it. We must use skin color as the reason for admissions.
As long as we have Africans in white nations, we will have to treat them special and baby them. They can not functin without the help and guidance and aid of the white race. They need us or they will starve.
Posted by LOGIC at 9:22 PM on January 21
“But to presume that every minority needs special treatment is demeaning, he said.”
It’s not demeaning. It’s true. Minorities would not be capable of getting the upper-level jobs without affirmative action. We recognized that fact 40 years ago and foolishly said, “To hell with it, we’ll just give them jobs/send them to colleges even though they haven’t earned it.” Well, look where that’s gotten us.
Affirmative action merely proves that we subconsciously realized that most minorities are not smart enough to get jobs without a crutch. Whites will eventually realize that AA was instituted because of intelligence, not to address discrimination of the past.
Posted by John R. Kennedy at 9:44 PM on January 21
At the Federal level, the first thing to begin booting out the Black incompetants is to reinstitute the civil service exam.
Posted by at 10:42 PM on January 21
Impressive. I’m inspired. Reading AmRen everyday can make a person feel helpless and want to just give up and leave the USA. It is encouraging to hear stories like this. Let this be a lesson for us all: become more active. Just posting on AmRen is not enough. Let’s get out there and make a difference. I hope these initiatives come to NYC.
p.s. Thank you AmRen for posting some good news.
Posted by Jordan NYC at 11:10 PM on January 21
“Researchers sent black and white men with nearly identical resumes to apply for hundreds of entry-level jobs. In some cases, the men were instructed to say they had spent 18 months in prison on a felony drug conviction. The results: Whites with a criminal record were more likely to be called back than blacks with no record.”
Does it even occur to those idiots that affirmative action is probably the REASON blacks are rejected when seeking jobs? What they have here is a self-fulfilling prophesy: Whites don’t want to hire blacks (because of A.A.) so this must be proof of racism. This, they reason, illustrates the need for A.A. and so there is more A.A. As a result, whites are even more loath to hire blacks and we have a vicious cycle.
Posted by jewamongyou at 11:20 PM on January 21
“Whites make up 66% of the population and make up 3% of the NBA, 5% of the NFL, and 5% of MLB, all of which are sports White men invented.”
No, actually it’s 20% of the NBA, 35% of the NFL and 60% of MLB (with ‘Latinos’ black and white) making up another 20%)
American blacks are only about 9% of Major league baseball.
Posted by at 11:46 PM on January 21
“In response, Oppenheimer mentions a study published a few years ago in the American Journal of Sociology. Researchers sent black and white men with nearly identical resumes to apply for hundreds of entry-level jobs. In some cases, the men were instructed to say they had spent 18 months in prison on a felony drug conviction. The results: Whites with a criminal record were more likely to be called back than blacks with no record.”
There is more to an interview than a resume and a criminal record. There is confidence, communication, image and attitude.
I once interviewed a black candidate with an impressive resume but it didn’t come across in the interview. In fact, during the interview he couldn’t answer some elementary questions and suggested he couldn’t answer them because no one gave him the necessary training to answer them. I found it interesting that he emphasized the word “gave”; an entitlement word. The message I got was that he couldn’t study on his own, he need someone to provide him with the training.
Many black candidates I have interviewed lack 5th grade english language skills. I think liberal academia has done them a disservice by allowing them to pass through the school system.
Affirmative action has been the crutch that has crippled them.
By law they are equal. Let them compete fair.
Posted by Lucas M at 12:12 AM on January 22
Ward Connerly gets credit for attempting to do the right thing, but frankly I am not sure where this get us. Assuming these measures pass, invariably they will be challenged through a series of lawsuits or simply not implemented by defiant left wing bureaucrats. Ten years after the passage of Prop 209 in California, another Connerly brainchild, there are still ongoing skirmishes in this regard.
Even if I am wrong, what will this matter when Whites sink to minority status? Blacks and Latinos will have the electoral majority to simply vote themselves whatever they damn please at the expense of Whites.
This is not the answer to our ills. At best, it just gives us a false sense that we making progress. Our day of reckoning will still arrive.
Posted by acsnyc at 1:33 AM on January 22
This is a bogus argument. If you control for experience, education, and IQ there virtually NO difference in the incomes of any race in terms of their income during employment. This is nothing but smoke and mirrors by the legislative left.
Has anybody else noticed that when speaking about “sensitive” issues such as minority crime, recidivism rates, ect. they we all need to analyze the data taking many variable into account, and socio economic analysis as well but when the shoe is on the other foot they can make open ended stereotypes and frauduleny claims at will? Amazing really.
Posted by NEONMANIAC at 2:05 AM on January 22
“Whites don’t want to hire blacks (because of A.A.)”
They’d rather hire convicts?
Posted by at 2:09 AM on January 22
When I entered the veterans hospital in Memphis, Tn., every office and there were many, I did not see one white person not one, with the exception of a white doctor.
Posted by at 2:09 AM on January 22
Affirmative action and all racial preferences are unconstitutional. Colleges, government and most big businesses have broken the law.
Posted by at 8:26 AM on January 22
I urge all Caublindians (Caucasian ,Black, and Indian heritage), and all free men, to join with this man!
The egaliltarians will not stop at affirmative action. Next is “income-diverse neighborhoods” or some such nonsense—Section 8 on steroids!
Posted by Winston Newton Howell at 8:52 AM on January 22
My best argument against AA is it’s unconstitutional isn’t that enough?
Posted by pat at 9:34 AM on January 22
> I think every state but Hawaii has a white majority electorate.
Texas, New Mexico, California and DC are also majority-minority.
Posted by qwerty at 9:41 AM on January 22
“If you control for experience, education, and IQ there virtually NO difference in the incomes of any race in terms of their income during employment… Has anybody else noticed that when speaking about “sensitive” issues such as minority crime, recidivism rates, ect. we all need to analyze the data taking many variables into account… but when the shoe is on the other foot they can make open ended stereotypes and frauduleny claims at will?”
What I have noticed is that virtually ever ‘study’ done at university or funded by a special interest group seems set up to investigate one thing and one thing only: just how prejudicial whites are. It’s no surprise many of these studies reveal just that, and no surprise educators and the mass media pick up on the most ‘revealing’ ones. There was a study I read about here on AmRen that pointed out non-whites who have the same education and experience as whites, earn more money than whites.
Posted by Facts at 10:20 AM on January 22
I’m curious when all this respect for ‘diversity’ at places like the Baltimore public transit service will get some whites hired on there.
Posted by at 12:10 PM on January 22
Without AA the unemployment rate among blacks would be astronomical…and government jobs would have probably 50% vacancy rates.
Think about it.
I am so old when I attended school their was no AA and we all learned or didn’t learn equally, blacks, whites, and Indians.
So how did they get so dumb and the Marxists get so smart?
Posted by jdavis at 12:19 PM on January 22
“Even if I am wrong, what will this matter when Whites sink to minority status? Blacks and Latinos will have the electoral majority to simply vote themselves whatever they damn please at the expense of Whites.
This is not the answer to our ills. At best, it just gives us a false sense that we making progress. Our day of reckoning will still arrive.”
I believe you are right. This is a good news overall, but lets not get sidetracked by the actions of Mr. Connelly. Whites will soon be a minority, and whites just simply dont care, at least not enough to get active in large numbers. I firmly believe now is the time to prepare for the reckoning and educate as many others as you can on a one on one basis. We need to survive this just as we have so many other castostrophies that have befallen our race. Look forward to the Feb gathering.
Shaun from UCA
Posted by Shaun at 2:14 PM on January 22
Well, Whites make up 99% of the NHL…at least there’s that!
Go Habs Go!
Posted by Del Phantom at 4:19 PM on January 22
Ward should have a legal holiday in lieu of that Marxist/plagerizer/womanizer-woman beater.
Posted by Michigan patriot at 6:55 PM on January 22
Correct Shaun. A student with insight.
Posted by Bobby at 7:40 PM on January 22
AA is alive and well as evidenced by the operation of any city government with a high minority populated city. Typically there is a long waiting line, a few people working the line and alot of the workers talking on their cell phones and making noise on taxpayer money? Then of course T’shika who is begrudingly helping you has shifted into extra slow mode. Sorta reminds me why I moved to the burbs.
Posted by at 10:51 PM on January 22
The feds will just withhold highway funds until the states comply like they did in California. Total waste of time.
Posted by at 5:08 AM on January 23
Afirmative Action/federal and education jobs are just another form of welfare. Logic was right that blacks can’t sustain themselves without our help. These programs have “helped” no one. Blacks were much better off as a race before Civil Rights - they had a middle class and were raised in families. Now it’s chaos and they are sustaining themselves on “aid for dependent children” with 70% illegitimacy. Can you imagine trying to purchase a home or big ticket item without proof of employment or income? Any cash purchase over $10K has to reported to the IRS. That is the explanation for “Bling” - how else to spend their ill-gotten gains?
Posted by at 4:39 PM on January 23
It’s so typical of the Times that the reporter fails to mention
that Connerly organized a day-long conference on the subject
of racial preferences. There were numerous speakers, many
with impressive credentials and all opposed to preferences,
but Prof. Oppenheimer (who gets equal billing with Connerly
in this article) was nowhere to be found at the podium.
Posted by Larry at 12:24 AM on January 24