The Wall Street Journal News Articles
Taking on the Status of Quotas
May 22, 2000
A self-made businessman and political operative of mixed African,
European and Native American descent, Mr. Connerly became convinced
that affirmative-action policies were harmful to the nation,
including to minorities themselves. Unlike pundits who remain
content to write hand-wringing editorials or trade words on Sunday
talk shows, Mr. Connerly took action. The force of his will and
intellect was the major determinant in ending affirmative action at
the University of California in 1995. He then became the key
proponent of Proposition 209, which ended racial preferences in
California's state government. He is now the nation's leading
proponent of truly race-neutral policies.
As one might expect in this Orwellian age, the very elements in his
background that gave Mr. Connerly credibility in the larger debate
were turned against him, causing him to become the object of vicious
and continuing attacks. Focusing on such matters as his marriage to
a white woman and his membership in the Republican Party as evidence
of his disloyalty to minorities, affirmative-action proponents love
to characterize Mr. Connerly as a "white wannabe" and "Uncle Tom" --
in short, as a traitor to his race.
"Creating Equal" is partly Mr. Connerly's reply to those attackers
and partly an account of the personal journey that has brought him
to his current convictions. One finds in the pages of this book a
strong personality who is not afraid to confront his critics, from
Jesse Jackson ("so out of step . . . that he sounded like a flat
earther") to Gen. Colin Powell ("Powell had many things to
contribute to the Republican Party but an original or profound view
on race was not one of them"). The book also shows a measured
approach to other social questions (he favors, for example,
domestic-partner benefits for gay couples) that in the end convinces
an objective reader that Mr. Connerly's views on race relations are
decades ahead of the Jacobins who have foisted the
affirmative-action regime on this country.
Affirmative action, which originally sought to repair the
state-induced damage to blacks from slavery and its aftermath, has
within one generation brought about a permeating state-sponsored
racism that is as odious as the Jim Crow laws it sought to
countermand. A Soviet-style bureaucracy of political commissars now
monitors every level of our society to ensure that racial and gender
"diversity" matches pre-ordained models, using the awesome powers of
government to make certain that white males are not
"overrepresented" in education, employment or government contracts.
And yet, despite billions of dollars spent on such policies and the
"people watchers" charged with implementing them, the results have
been both ludicrous and sad, with every nonwhite ethnic group
enjoying favoritism while a significant part of black America
remains mired in the underclass.
The breadth of this folly will no doubt stun future historians. As
Mr. Connerly notes, the California Legislature defined "socially
disadvantaged persons" eligible for government preferences as
"Women, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans
(including American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, and native Hawaiians),
Asian-Pacific Americans (including persons whose origins are from
Japan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, Samoa, Guam, the
United States Trust Territories of the Pacific, Northern Marianas,
Laos, Cambodia, and Taiwan)." This definition is similar to those
used in federal programs, including the highly lucrative Section
8(a) set-aside programs for federal contracts.
It is today difficult to have a rational public debate about how
this policy has gone awry. Such debates are made even more difficult
because affirmative-action programs have scarcely affected the more
advantaged white groups, who evince a great reluctance to criticize
the (usually middle-class) minorities who have joined them in the
"new elite." Enter Ward Connerly, who had the temerity to declare
not only that affirmative action has become a sham but that "well
meaning liberals" are defending a "morally incoherent policy . . .
that benefits a handful of middle-class blacks" while failing to
address "the underclass seething helplessly in the inner cities."
A weakness of Mr. Connerly's book is that it barely touches on the
deep socio-economic divisions among white American cultures, which
make the entire premise of affirmative action -- that white America
is a fungible monolith from which benefits to minorities can be
drawn -- fallacious. In the zero-sum game of college admissions and
job selection, the less successful white cultures have fallen
further behind as a veneer of minorities have joined the elites. Nor
does Mr. Connerly discuss how Asian-Americans, who in states such as
California seem to have been held back by affirmative-action
policies, have nonetheless benefited greatly from set-asides in
government contracting. But in fairness, these issues are beyond the
scope of Mr. Connerly's story.
This warmly personal, highly readable book allows Mr. Connerly the
opportunity not only to put his background into context but to
persuade the reader of the sincerity of his views and thus of his
motives. As he sums up at the end of one chapter: "I had done my
part to enhance the image of black Americans as being independent
and resourceful, confident in America's ultimate fairness, and
capable of finding their own way to success and fulfillment."
Memo to Al Gore and George W. Bush: Read this book.
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS