Ending Affirmative Discrimination
They call them "diversity fellowships," but they're anything but, since the money and opportunity is only dispensed to blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans. So, maybe the rich kid gets a handout, as long as he or she is the right color, and the poor white kid is left out in the cold. And people "of color" who make it on their merits are often, most insultingly, thought to be beneficiaries of handouts.
There's good news on the horizon for people like me who think this is ugly stuff. From CNN:
Ballot initiatives have been proposed in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma that would give voters the chance to decide whether they want to do away with affirmative action in government-funded projects and public schools.Ward Connerly, who heads the American Civil Rights Coalition -- a nonprofit organization working to end racial and gender preferences -- and the main backer of the ballot initiatives, says the 37 word initiative would read: "The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting."
"It would forbid any state or local agency or special district from engaging in preferential treatment," Connerly said.
Connerly, who is of African-American and American Indian descent, said affirmative action causes resentment. He criticized cases in which a Caucasian student might be denied a college slot in favor of a black student with a lower grade-point average.
"It's foolish not to think that the kid who is turned away is not going to ... resent that," Connerly said.
Connerly, who grew up in Leesville, Louisiana, said he experienced oppression because of his skin color during his youth.
"If it was wrong when I was born in '39 ... it's wrong now," he said. "If it was wrong to do it against a brown-skinned man, it's wrong to do it against a white man."
Yay, Ward!
You don't resolve past discrimination by discriminating. And no, I don't want a black president, or a woman president; I just want a good president.
Sorry, you won't get Ward. He's too smart to run for president.
brian
at March 8, 2008 8:02 AM
Long live Ward Connerly.
Jeff
at March 8, 2008 9:48 AM
I wasn't thinking of him for president, but a guy who thinks like he does on this issue is a guy I'd be interested in looking further at if he ran for something...and if the rest of his thinking is as sensible, he'd likely get my vote.
Amy Alkon at March 8, 2008 9:50 AM
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