Here comes “Super Tuesday for civil rights”
February 7th, 2008, 12:48 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Le Templar
Ward Connerly
When Ward Connerly predicts Arizona will easily adopt a constitutional amendment to abolish affirmation action programs, his track record says you have to take him seriously.
The former regent of the University of California system has become a national leader in the movement to end all government programs that offer preferential treatment to women or minorities. He was the voice and face of initiatives to stop public colleges and universities from considering race for admission in California, Washington and Michigan. Now, Connerly is the force behind a bid to bring constitutional amendments to November general elections in five states at once, including Arizona, that would ban preference programs related to public education, government employment and public contracts.
Connerly plans to formally launch his campaign for a “Super Tuesday for civil rights,” next week. But he gave a preview in Phoenix Thursday at breakfast fundraiser for the Goldwater Institute.
The Arizona campaign already has high-profile chairman in Maricopa County Andrew Thomas. But Connerly is expected to be the heart and soul of the five-state strategy. As a black man raised by his grandmother, aunt and uncle in the pre-civil rights era of the 1950s, Connerly has been the perfect foil to various groups who say opponents of affirmation action are closet racists.
Connerly says his direct experience with overt discrimination has led him to believe no person should be judged by their skin color or gender, even if the underlying intentions are well-meaning. He says the “morally wrong” focus on race actually keeps society from addresses the problems that harm minorities such as poverty and a lack of education.
Connerly spoke for more than 30 minutes without notes so his speech was somewhat rambling. But his passion emerged during a question-and-answer session when he was challenged by audience member Ed Valenzuela, the former regional director of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Connerly easily cited a litany of statistics that enrollment and graduation rates climbed for blacks and Asians at specific University of California campuses after that state’s voters banned affirmation action in higher education. He argued black students are now matched better with the programs where they can succeed instead of being accepted into schools for which they weren’t prepared. And Asians clearly were discriminated against in order to prop open campus doors for blacks, he added. “It is Orwellian to say that by demanding that people be treated equally, you are suppressing their numbers,” Connerly said.
Connerly’s petition drive is formally called the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative and it would “prohibit preferential treatment or discrimination by state government, state universities, colleges, community colleges, school districts, counties and local governments to any individual or group based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.”
The initiative has to collect at least 230,047 valid signatures from registered voters by July 3 to qualify for the Nov. 5 general election.
