Race-Baiting on the Ballot

The American Prospect
Immigration isn't the only explosive racial issue facing voters in the coming election year -- the anti-affirmative action movement is pushing 2008 ballot initiatives across the country. Is economic populism the antidote?
Dana Goldstein
November 26, 2007

Democrats are girding for a battle on immigration in 2008, both as a topic of debate in the presidential race and as an agenda-setter in the states. Anti-immigrant referendums are expected on ballots across the country. But flying under the radar is another ballot campaign manufactured to play on tensions of race, class, and ethnicity. Ward Connerly, the California businessman who successfully led ballot initiatives to eradicate affirmative action programs in California, Washington state, and Michigan, plans to take his crusade to five more states next year: Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
After a string of failures on affirmative action, progressive organizers are trying to control the terms of the debate by challenging Connerly's "civil rights" rhetoric, which implies affirmative action is just as discriminatory as Jim Crow-era segregation. Affirmative action defenders are also reframing the policy as one that primarily benefits women of all races.
But Connerly, who is black, continues to shift the ground under the opposition's feet. He is now speaking frequently about his personal support for "socioeconomic affirmative action," and reiterating his long-standing opposition to legacy admissions, which help mostly affluent, white students. "We're saying everywhere we go that there needs to be some kind of transition from racial to socioeconomic affirmative action," Connerly told the Prospect. "We strongly support helping those who need it."
Seeking to soften his appeal, Connerly's rhetoric echoes that of some progressives who would like to refocus affirmative action benefits on the poor, instead of on historically discriminated-against groups. Affirmative action defenders say they too support extra help for the poor, but maintain that without programs targeting race and gender, disparities will persist. In California, for example, African American, Latino, and Native American enrollment at U.C. Berkeley and UCLA decreased by hundreds of students annually after voters approved Connerly's Proposition 209 in 1996.
Those are the results civil-rights organizers are trying to avoid nationwide. "Colorado's affirmative action programs are very modest, and we know that they help address the achievement gap between white and minority students in our public schools," said Linda Meric, co-chair of Colorado Unity, a labor, business, civil-rights, and religious coalition opposing the anti-affirmative action ballot initiative. Meric stressed that white women are major beneficiaries of affirmative action. "Women still face a significant wage gap when compared to men, and we believe that Coloradans support pay equity and programs that help women and girls get into nontraditional fields such as science and engineering," she told the Prospect.
Although affirmative action is understood primarily as a policy used in college admissions, a ban against it would affect a variety of state programs, some of which wouldn't be called "affirmative action" at all. The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Simply the Best program offers after-school technology enrichment, field trips, and visits to college campuses for African American and Latina teen girls. Colorado gives special health-care training to minority and bilingual professionals, which ensures more patients have access to culturally competent care. And the Colorado Minority Business Office helps people of color understand how to apply for state contracts.
Connerly said he would support Colorado's enrichment programs for K-12 students if they selected children according to class, instead of race and gender. But he's firmly opposed to any special help for adults. "I don't see the same compelling public interest," he said.
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