Choosing sides

Black Enterprise, Nov, 1995 by Willie Brown, Ward Connerly

Affirmative-action programs began, as, and remains, an effort to desegregate and diversity the American workplace by facilitating the entry of those citizens who have traditionally been excluded from all but the lowest rungs of the employment ladder.

As a general rule, affirmative action consists of three components: measures aimed at eliminating discrimination in hiring, promotions and terminations; programs to increase the representation of women and minorities in government employment and contracting; and policies for special admissions to institutions of higher learning, which are always the gateways to the nation's best jobs.

For those who have benefited from them, the results of affirmative-action programs have been extraordinary. In a larger sense, however, the results have been only modest. The reality of an America in which white males hold the best jobs, earn the most money and wield the greatest influence, has hardly been endangered by affirmative action (even though white males themselves are a minority, who comprise only 37% of the nation's population).

The gains have been modest even in a state such as California, where affirmative-action efforts have been under way for 20 years and where the population itself is more ethnically diverse than in any other large state.

The University of California is a prime example. No qualified student is denied entrance to the UC system, and only 5% of each entering class is enrolled under special admissions--UC's affirmative-action program. Moreover, members of every racial and ethnic group have been admitted under this program, which--far from being limited to considerations of ethnicity--also allows preferential admission on the basis of athletic ability, musical and artistic talent and graduation from a rural high school.

Affirmative-action programs, which ought to be expanded, not eliminated, are critical to California's future. Right around the turn of the century, just five years from now, white Anglos will no longer constitute a majority of the state's population.

California's ability to generate the type of highly skilled workforce essential to its future economic prosperity is directly dependent upon our ability to move as many women and minorities as possible into the economic mainstream. The assault on affirmative-action programs, in this context, is counterproductive and contrary to the state's long-term interests.

Within a larger context, the current attack on affirmative action is nothing more than the latest chapter in the politics of division and scapegoating that began last year with a similar attack on illegal immigrants.

It is an attempt to prey upon the fears and angers of an electorate besieged by declining wages and the uncertainties of a competitive global economy by diverting attention away from the policies that led to these uncertainties and, instead, identifying groups to take the blame. And it bodes ill for a state that, perhaps more than any other, needs the politics of rational discourse to sort through its problems and assure its future.

Connerly: Affirmative action has outlived its usefulness

Flash! contrary to popular opinion, slavery has not been ended. It is alive and well in America. We call it "affirmative action." This may sound harsh, but I find it very interesting that if we carefully examine the definition of slavery, we find its most important characteristics--"dependency" and "under the domination of another"--present in affirmative action.

Affirmative action, as a concept, draws its life from the proposition that black Americans cannot succeed in this nation without special consideration. That is "dependency." It also presumes that there is a controlling group, presumably white males, to whom blacks must go to receive this special consideration. That is "domination."

To be certain, there is still discrimination in this "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave"' but there is absolutely no reason for black Americans to believe that they cannot succeed on the strength of their own talents, hard work and initiative. Affirmative action, which served this nation well for many years, has outlived its usefulness. Yet, many black Americans remain enslaved to affirmative action and its premise that you can't succeed without me.

Affirmative action is like an old car that has too many miles on it. As parts wear out, the car becomes sluggish, performance begins to suffer and the vehicle becomes a high-maintenance item. We could try to overhaul it, but the cost of doing that is too steep. These costs, economic and social, must be borne by the nation as well as the beneficiaries of affirmative action.

Let me address the highest cost of all: the mental enslavement of black Americans. When will we ever learn the lesson of economic progress that virtually every immigrant group coming to America has learned?

Vietnamese people, one of our more recent immigrants groups, come to our country and open doughnut shops and other low-capital enterprises and insist that their kids go to school and get a good education. They sacrifice themselves so that their children may someday enjoy the American dream. Entrepreneurship and education comprise the formula for a better life. They often come here with nothing more than a belief in themselves, a can-do-it-attitude.