The strange history of a so-called civil rights campaign

This Web only Speakout has not been edited.

Amy Blackwell

Published March 7, 2008 at 6 a.m.

Text size  

• 0 Comments
• Email
• Print

In 1996, Californians passed Proposition 209, stating that “he 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.” Touted by proponents as a stride toward a color-blind society, passage of Prop 209 increased public sector discrimination by eliminating its unstated target, affirmative action.

Championed by Ward Connerly, a former regent of the University of California and a well-connected consultant and lobbyist for building-trade contractors, Prop 209 was drafted by two white male professors in the UC system. Said professors approached Connerly, an African American male, to lead the charge. Seizing a lucrative opportunity, Connerly’s contractor clients jumped on the bandwagon, too, contributing large sums of money, thinking that Prop 209 would virtually eliminate competing women- and minority-owned businesses from the public-contracting bidding pool, and would allow primary contractors to use their “good old boy” network of white-male subcontractors exclusively, instead of enforcing racial and gender diversity.

These contractors were right. According to an investigative report in the Winter 2008 issue of Ms. Magazine, California Department of Transportation contracts to women- and minority-owned businesses plummeted from 27.7 percent in 1994 (two years before Prop 209) to 8.2 percent in 2002 (six years after Prop 209), with many contractors in other sectors losing up to 80-90 percent in receipts.

Voters approved copycat ballot measures in Washington state in 1998 and Michigan in 2006, with documented instances of voter fraud following in their wakes.

Women and minorities in these states, too, are reeling from the impact in public hiring, education, and contracting.

The state-by-state juggernaut continues this year, with a Connerly-backed, copycat ballot initiative threatening to appear on the November ballot here in Colorado and in four other states. Billed as “Super Tuesday for Equal Rights,” Connerly’s current push employs the tried-and-true tactic of deceptive initiative phrasing. Kimberle Crenshaw, professor of law at Columbia University and at UCLA Law School, explained that Connerly and his ilk selectively sample the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to evoke King’s symbolism and moral authority, all the while undermining crucial civil rights victories, of which affirmative action is one.

Such confusing verbiage was the basis of two appeals by opponents of Connerly’s Colorado Civil Rights Initiative. When the Colorado Initiative Title Setting Review Board ruled that the initiative met the single-subject requirement and approved the initiative’s language in June 2007, opponents demanded an appeal, arguing that the initiative did not meet the single-subject rule. Attorney Edward Ramey explained that the terms “discrimination” and “preferential treatment” were conflicting, posing a potential paradox to voters. The title setting review board denied the appeal. In August, Ramey then filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court, but the Court upheld the title review board’s ruling. This allowed Connerly backers to circulate petitions to place the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative on the November 2008 ballot.

Notice also that the initiatives’ language does not include the actual words “affirmative action.”

Pollster Louis Harris, as early as 1992, found that a clear majority of Americans support “affirmative action” and overwhelmingly oppose “racial preference.”

Words count, and that lesson was not lost on Ward Connerly after a decisive defeat in Houston. When affirmative action was specifically mentioned in a Connerly-supported city initiative there, voters shot it down.

Remember: Affirmative action programs are intended to eliminate unwarranted obstacles faced by people of color and women. Beyond the obvious detrimental effects on public education, employment, and contracting if affirmative action is outlawed in Colorado, we must consider other far-reaching impacts of passage of the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative on race-or gender-targeted health screenings; services for two Ute tribes via the Colorado State Commission on Indian Affairs; and programs that introduce girls to careers in math, science and engineering.

Amy Blackwell, a member of the American Association of University Women - Colorado Public Policy Committee, lives in Castle Rock.

Featured

• Sam Adams' Open Mic

  

  No. 44 means a lot to Floyd Little

• A Dozen on Denver

  

  Sandra Dallas wrote 'Lennie's tavern' for our ongoing fiction series. Check it out!

• Rocky Multimedia

  

  The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on today's events.

• Broncos Game Action

  

  Click for more game action photos from Invesco field.

• 2008 Race for the Cure

  

  The 16th Annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

• A dream fulfilled

  

  A Rocky Mountain News and MediaStorm production

• Presidential Elections

  

  See how Colorado counties have voted through the years.

• County election profiles

  

  A look at how residents in each Colorado county may vote.

• Peak Picks

  

  Submit your fall foliage photos to our contest and vote on other submissions.