Civil wrongs - George Bush and Kennedy-Hawkins Civil Rights Bill

National Review, June 11, 1990

GEORGE BUSH enjoys the highest popularity a Republican has had among blacks since Joe Louis campaigned for Wendell Willkie. Partly it is the result of his perfect-pitch graciousness, which he has made special efforts to turn toward black figures-welcoming them to the White House, seeking their opinions and advice. Partly it's the result of his roots as a New England Republican, to which he was true during the four years he represented his Houston district in the House, campaigning and serving as a racial moderate. And partly, of course, it is political calculation: any Republican who can capture 20 per cent of the black vote, while holding the GOP base, won't even have to campaign in 1992: the election will be his.

The civil-rights establishment and the liberal press are counting on the tugs of temperament and calculation to impel Mr. Bush to sign some version of the Kennedy-Hawkins Civil Rights Bill. The signals could hardly be more clear. Benjamin Hooks of the NAACP called the bill a "litmus test." Arthur Fletcher, a (lamentable) Bush appointee to the Civil Rights Commission, calls the bill "a battle for the President's mind." "Mr. Bush," intoned the New York Times, "has an opportunity that Ronald Reagan never allowed himself." But if Mr. Bush caves in, he will not only betray conservative principles, but set back the struggle for black advancement.

The problems with the Kennedy-Hawkins bill are legion (see "Ted Kennedy's Road to Serfdom," Susan Mandel, NR, May 28). The bill is essentially an employment-quota bill, aimed at any business with more than 15 employees, which is to say, most businesses. The sponsors of the bill, of course, call openly not for quotas but for "goals." But we weren't born yesterday. The bill would encourage firestorms of litigation by aggrieved women as well as blacks, and would shove onto employers the burden of proving their innocence. The standard of guiltlessness it would set would be so high that most employers would simply adopt quota hiring off the bat.

The White House is trying to water the quota provisions down. What it ought to do is junk the whole package and heed the advice of Robert Woodson, president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, to "go back to the drawing board and really construct legislation that addresses the critical needs of people whose brains are being blown out in these inner cities, whose families are in crisis."

Quotas of the kind encouraged by the KennedyHawkins bill would help members of minority groups who already have a foot in the door-by virtue of credentialing or education-to insert a calf and a thigh. The quotas would benefit, in other words, the very people most qualified to make their own way. The black poor who are floundering need instead policies designed to encourage effort, industry, and family cohesion. George Bush can view his popularity among blacks as a precious asset, which must be protected at all costs, or as an opportunity to advance programs which, though they do not interest black leaders," will actually benefit their supposed constituencies. This bill is a litmus test for conservatives as well as for the "civil-rights" lobby.