Jewish World Review May 10, 2002 / 28 Iyar, 5762
Debra J. Saunders
Colorblind U
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
LOOK AT a University of California application and
you'll see why UC Regent Ward Connerly wrote the
Racial Privacy Initiative (RPI), which would prohibit
the state from classifying people by their ethnicity.
Expect the measure to be on the November ballot.
The form tells students to check the "appropriate
boxes:" "African American, " "American
Indian/Alaska native," "East Indian/Pakistani,"
"Chinese/Chinese American," "Filipino, Japanese,
Korean, Vietnamese, Pacific Islander," "other Asian
(not including Middle Eastern)", "Mexican
American/Chicano," "other Spanish
American/Latino," "white/Caucasian (including Middle
Eastern)," and simply "other."
This year, 7.3 percent of UC entrants refused to state
their ethnicity. If Connerly has his way, UC will stop
asking all applicants about race.
RPI would end racial questionnaires in public
education, public contracting and public employment
-- unless it's mandated by the federal government.
(Connerly thinks K-12 schools would be exempt.)
The RPI also would allow race data collection (but
not race tracking) by law enforcement, and race data
collection for medical research, or if two-thirds of the
Legislature finds that collecting ethnic data "serves a
compelling state interest."
Connerly championed Proposition 209, the 1996
voter-approved measure that ended gender and
race-based preferences in state hiring and college
admissions.
He told me that if RPI wins, it would be his last
initiative in California.
Why RPI? Connerly believes "there is something
fundamentally un-American" in grouping people by
race. He wants to do away with "identity politics." He
objects to what he sees as too many African
Americans "living on the left side of that hyphen,
rather than the right side of that hyphen." He wants
to change the culture.
Connerly is part black, Cherokee and white -- his
ethnicity defies one easy category. He looks at his
own family and the growing number of mixed-race
families, and bristles at the practice of typing people
in a race box. If the government stops race-typing, he
believes, "skin color and all of these traits we assign
to race will begin to diminish."
I don't agree. The state can stop asking, but that
won't make race discrimination go away. And not
knowing the facts won't make racial parity a reality.
Kerry Mazzoni, Gov. Gray Davis' education
secretary, worries that RPI could make it hard to
monitor how minority schoolchildren fare. "If we can't
monitor their progress," she said, "there will be some
children left behind." UC spokesman Michael Reese
believes that while some professors may welcome
the measure, others "fear the unintended
consequences." State lawyers are checking for
federal laws that might exempt schools and
universities.
Paul Turner of the anti-redlining Greenlining Institute
objected that the RPI would hamper attempts to
eradicate racial profiling. He's right.
Turner then descended into bogus fear-mongering.
He claimed that the RPI would hurt medical research
-- wrong, it exempts medical research. Turner also
said it's "conceivable" that courts would order private
companies with state contracts -- such as, say,
State Farm Insurance -- not to collect racial data.
Yeah, and pigs could fly. Actually, the courts more
likely will try to gut the RPI. Yet, Turner called RPI a
"deceptive and divisive measure."
Divisive? That's liberalese for a license to smear.
During the Prop. 209 campaign, critics called
Connerly a self-loathing black man, a traitor to his
race. Opponents ran an ad linking the KKK with 209
and an ad that claimed 209 would threaten abortion
rights.
So, I've decided to let the tenor of the campaigns
determine how I'll vote on the RPI. I don't like what
RPI would do, but I dislike even more how nasty the
opposition is likely to get.
If the RPI opposition sticks to the issues, I'll vote
against the measure. But if the opposition is as
dishonest as the anti-209 camp was, if it gets overly
personal, if it equates the desire for color-blindness
with racism, if it concocts horror scenarios to scare
the public, I'll vote for RPI.
People of goodwill can disagree on this measure. But
people of goodwill should not countenance the smear
campaign.
Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here.
05/08/02: License to spend
05/06/02: Conservatism can survive despite liberal bias
05/03/02:A speech like air kisses
05/02/02: Bush should end bad sentences
04/29/02: Get ready America, California is gettin' into the slave reparations business
04/26/02: Saudis' money for martyrs
04/24/02: Oooh la la, Le Pen
04/15/02: Drill Alaska -- for the children
04/11/02: A good marriage with an esteemed soul mate -- well, nothing beats it
04/09/02: Tied up and Taliban
04/05/02: No justice in reparations
04/01/02: Schools, yes; fat police, no
03/25/02: The government-induced doctor shortage
03/22/02: Conservative hypocrisy on school drug testing?
03/20/02: And now, about Russell Yates . . .
03/18/02: Bush isn't worried about alienating loyalist voters
03/13/02: No exit strategy
03/11/02: Simon hits the big time
03/06/02: He got away
03/01/02: Mary, Luke, Paul, John and Noah
02/25/02: These are good days for veep
02/21/02: Dirty bill for a dirty mess
02/19/02: Score one for Greta
02/15/02: Dose of justice needed here
02/08/02: Sunshine all around
02/04/02: Does citizenship matter?
02/01/02: End the coverup
01/30/02: Try this for "troubling"
01/25/02: Camp X-ray or Club Med?
01/23/02: Let's stop the deluge of porn e-mail
01/21/02: No 'Little Boy Lost'
01/16/02: Son of Supercar
01/12/02: Beware the European view of the death penalty
01/09/02: Other people's children
01/07/02: It doesn't fly
01/03/02: Going from the Atlantic City Boardwalk to Berkeley
12/31/01: In America, punishment should fit the crime
12/28/01: What I'd like to see in 2002
12/24/01: Don't heckle ink monopolists
12/21/01: Mumia finds safety in numbers
12/19/01 The self-help PBS shopping network
12/17/01 Caught on tape
12/14/01 Know when to hold 'em
12/10/01 Old friends
12/06/01 I read the news today, oh boy
12/03/01 It's not cricket
11/28/01 Admissions and omissions
11/26/01 Guns and abayas
11/21/01 Depraved minds think alike
11/19/01 Guilty, a la carte
11/14/01 Interpreting the entrails of Election 2000
11/12/01 Life and liberty
11/09/01 Safety is as safety does
11/07/01 More hot air on global warming
11/05/01 Bumped Pakistani's molehill
11/01/01 Freedom snuffed out
10/29/01 Give war a chance
10/26/01 Airline bill needs liftoff
10/22/01 The Riordan Principle
10/19/01 Before America gets tired of the war on terrorism
10/17/01 Patriot games
10/15/01 I was a 'McCainiac,' and I have seen the light
10/12/01 University of Censorship's fall semester
10/11/01 Poor little rich boy, Osama
10/07/01 Don't feed Israel to the beast
10/05/01: bin Laden is not our Frankenstein monster
10/04/01: Where no man has gone before
09/26/01: Who's bloodthirsty?
09/26/01: What's to understand?
09/20/01: Barbara Lee's line in the sand
09/14/01: You gotta love this country
09/13/01: ENTER TERROR
09/11/01: You can't clone ethics
09/06/01: NOW's goal: equal rights for women without equal responsibility
08/30/01: What's love got to do with it?
08/24/01: A clean, well-lighted place for junkies
08/20/01: Bush should stand up for justice
08/08/01: Don't give Peace (Dept). a chance
08/03/01: Lose a kid, pass a law
08/01/01: Welcome to France, killers
07/30/01: Why it's easy being green (in Europe)
07/26/01: If disabled means expendable
07/23/01: Condit should not resign
07/18/01: Feinstein should learn her limit
07/16/01: A drought of common sense
07/13/01: The catalog has no clothes
07/05/01: It's Bush against the planet
07/03/01: The man who would be guv
06/29/01: Wheeled, wired and free
06/27/01: O, fearful new world
06/25/01: End HMO horrors
06/21/01: Either they're dishonest or clueless
06/18/01: Freedom is a puff of smoke
06/15/01: In praise of going heavy: Yes, you can take it all
06/13/01: McVeigh: 'Unbowed' maybe, but dead for sure
06/11/01: Gumby strikes back
06/08/01: Los Angeles' last white mayor?
06/07/01: Kids will be kids, media will be media
06/04/01: Draw a line in the sand
05/30/01: Just don't call him a moderate
05/29/01: Operation: Beat up on civil rights
05/24/01: Of puppies, kittens and huge credit-card debts
05/22/01: Bush needs an energy tinkerbell
05/18/01: Divided we stand, united they fall
05/16/01: Big Bench backs might over right
05/15/01: Close SUV loophole
05/11/01: Kill the test, welcome failure
05/09/01: DA mayor's disappointing legacy
05/07/01: If it ain't broken ...
05/03/01: They shoot civilians, don't they?
04/30/01: Executions are not for prime time
04/12/01: White House and the green myth
04/10/01: The perjurer as celeb
04/04/01: Bush bashers don't know squat
04/02/01: Drugging our oldsters
03/30/01: Robert Lee Massie exercises his death wish
03/28/01: Cheney's nuclear reactor
03/26/01: Where California and Mexico meet
03/16/01: Boy's sentence was no accident
03/14/01: Soft money, hard reform
03/12/01: Banks, big credit lines and consumer bankruptcy
03/09/01: Free speech dies in Berkeley
03/02/01: When rats have rights
02/28/01: Move a frog, go to jail?
02/26/01: They knew they'd get away with it
02/20/01: How Dems define tax fairness
02/16/01: The jackpot casino Carmel tribe?
02/14/01: You can fight school success
02/12/01: Hannibal -- with guts this time
02/08/01: A family of jailbirds
02/05/01: Reality's most demeaning TV moments
02/01/01: Justice for the non-Rich
01/26/01: Hail to the chiefs of D.C. opinion
01/24/01: A day of mud and monuments
01/22/01: Diversity, division, de-lovely D.C.
01/19/01: Parties agree: Give back the money
01/17/01: Get tough with the oil companies, or forget pumping more Alaskan crude
01/15/01: Mineta better pray that no attending confirmation senator has ever driven to San Jose during rush hour
01/12/01: Europeans should look in the mirror
01/10/01: Dems' reasons for dissin' Dubya's picks
01/08/01: Jerry, curb your guru
01/03/01: A foe of Hitler and friend of Keating
12/28/00: Nice people think nice thoughts
12/26/00: The Clinton years: Epilogue
12/21/00: 'Tis the season to free nonviolent drug offenders
12/18/00: A golden opportunity is squandered
12/15/00: You can take the 24 years, good son
12/13/00: Court of law vs. court of public opinion
12/08/00: A salvo in the war on the war on drugs
12/06/00: Don't cry, Butterfly: Big trees make great decks
12/04/00: Florida: Don't do as Romans did
11/30/00: Special City's hotel parking ticket
11/27/00: No means yes, yes means more than yes
11/22/00: The bench, the ballot and fairness
11/20/00: Mendocino, how green is your ballot?
© 2000, Creators Syndicate
|