Black businessman fights affirmative action
Ward Connerly leading efforts in two states to ban racial preferences

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27023045/

OMAHA, Neb. - When it comes to Ward Connerly, the California businessman on a state-by-state war against affirmative action, it's hard for many people on either side of the issue to be colorblind.

If he were white, his message that racial preferences are damaging to everyone would ring hollow. As a black man, his positions have inflamed some supporters of affirmative action who have called him "race traitor" or worse.

He's succeeded in three states, faltered in a few others, and now he's looking to Nov. 4, when voters in Nebraska and Colorado will decide initiatives he helped put on the ballot.

Altering course of history?
Critics question his tactics in gathering signatures and what he gets paid for his efforts. But Connerly, a 69-year-old grandfather who can be mild and charming or harsh and defensive, is convinced that his mission of dismantling preferences is altering the course of history.

Affirmative action has become entrenched in American life and state by state, Connerly said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, and "we're changing that."

"If I thought it could be done — poof — flash of the wand, I'd be naive," Connerly said.

Affirmative action, he said, is an antiquated system that, rather than helping minorities, reinforces the perception they are second-class citizens who need help to succeed.

Connerly's proposed constitutional amendments prohibit state and local governments from giving preferential treatment to people on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity or national origin.

His fight against preferences started in the 1990s after a couple came to him when he was a regent at the University of California to talk about their white son's failure to get into the system's medical schools.

They showed him evidence that the schools were picking less qualified minority students, and Connerly became convinced the university was treating applicants unfairly.

In a battle that drew the attention of national media and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Connerly persuaded other regents to adopt his proposal to ban the use of race- and gender-based affirmative action in admissions and hiring, a precursor to a statewide ban.

After victory in California, Connerly took his new mission to other states. It took more than three years to pass the measure in Michigan, and he also succeeded in Washington. He formed the American Civil Rights Coalition, which has bankrolled campaigns across the country.

The opposition
Connerly is accused of misleading voters by billing the initiative drive as a civil rights cause. Opponents say thousands of people are duped into signing petitions and voting for the measures because they're described as bans on discrimination instead of attacks on programs that help women and minorities.

The group Nebraskans United, which formed to try to defeat the measure here, gave Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale video and other evidence that petition circulators left petitions unattended and committed other violations of state law.

They've filed a lawsuit challenging signatures' validity because of a "pattern of fraud and illegality." If successful, the lawsuit won't keep the measure off the ballot but could keep votes from being counted.

Meanwhile, a national group is questioning how much money Connerly makes. Kristina Wilfore, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which opposes Connerly's efforts, said his compensation is "out-of-whack with any nonprofit industry standards."

"Ward Connerly has used voter fraud and deception to place his initiatives on the ballot and profited off a campaign to outlaw equal opportunity," Wilfore said.

Said Connerly: "Why would I have to do that when I had a very successful company from which I earned far more than I could make running a national nonprofit effort that resulted in significant abuse to me and my family?"

Connerly said he's paid about $300,000 a year by the organization he founded to take his initiative beyond California.

At his Sacramento consulting firm, Connerly & Associates, which originates home repair loans and serves as the administrative arm for professional trade associations, he earned $2 million a year. He stopped taking a salary from the firm in 2005.

Not just black and white
Connerly was born in 1939 in Louisiana, then moved with his family to California. He married a white woman, Ilene. Interracial marriage wasn't common in 1962, and the union estranged them from her family until their son was born, Connerly wrote in his 2000 memoir, "Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences."

But Connerly calls "black" and "white" superficial descriptors. In his own case, Connerly said, "black" actually means French Canadian, Choctaw, African and Irish American.

Connerly said he hopes Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, might address the issue if elected. Obama is the son of a black man and a white woman.

"I may be wrong, but I honestly think that Sen. Obama, in an ideal world, would like to get rid of race as an issue in American life," Connerly said. "I really believe that. And I'm not an Obama supporter."

It may be unlikely, since Obama has said he opposes Connerly's efforts to end affirmative action.

Connerly predicts Republican nominee John McCain — who has said he supports the measures — "would ideally like to leave (the issue) alone" if elected.

"Although he supports the initiatives, I believe he would just as soon that it go away," Connerly said. "He doesn't want to come across as hostile to black people and Hispanics."

The same affirmative action that helped Ward Connerly badger on and in fact, Obama.

The only reason he could go to Harvard was affirmative action?

Really?
And you know this how?
Because a black man went to Harvard?

Let's see who get preferences in college; atheletes, faculty immediate family, alumni, large donors, celebrities, etc.

But those are up for condemnation are they?
Why not? The objection would be the same and applicable.

I can't wait for 2 Uncle Tom, sellout muthafuckas to die: Ward & Clarence. Fuck 'em. Wasted Blackness.

MuthaFunka said:

huh?

NoChances said:

Don't worry about it. It's too deep for ya. Just keep on "acting" like you're for Obama.

MuthaFunka said:

Sorry, i think my views are little bit more, you know, "humanitary" than you calling people who don't agree with you "wasted blackness".

NoChances said:

Yeah. SO much "humanitary" that you're on your 4th screen name, 2Jay.

MuthaFunka said:

That's the only one you could come up with? desperate, pathetic, and very Republican is how you're acting.

NoChances said:

Yeah. SO much "humanitary" that you're on your 4th screen name, 2Jay.

MuthaFunka said:

o my damn .. this gets better everyday in here

Flowers2 said:

MuthaFunka said:

I tell ya.. these alias accounts and folks round'here pretending to be black.. keeps the comedy going

imo affirmative action really is necessary as long as we have dscrimininatory practices based on gender, color, wealth, sexual orientation, political affiliation, etc.

as long as one group holds power over another someone has to advocate for the underclass.

i wonder if humankind will ever grow past needing this sort of assurance of fair play
[Edited 10/9/08 4:24am]

XxAxX said:

Well, at least in the corporate world, an epiphany has occurred: folks have realized that diversity is actually good for business. Blacks and Hispanics are very powerful consumer blocs. It's good business for your workplaces to look more like your consumer base. This is why major companies often tell their vendors that their workplaces must be diverse. The motives aren't completely altruistic.

Who knows, in a century or less, when the minority is firmly in the majority in the US, affirmative action might still be needed for members of the former majority!

This is one of those threads that non-American Orgers and never truly going to get, isn't it?

*backs out slowly*

This is one of those threads that non-American Orgers and never truly going to get, isn't it?

*backs out slowly*

Annika said:

really? okay

XxAxX said:

Yeah, usually when non-American Orgers try to voice opinions on race-related stuff in the US, the general vibe is that we will never really understand the underlying tension. And it's true, we probably won't. You guys just have a unique situation/history, and even though outsiders can form an opinion based on the logistics of it, it's really hard to get the emotional baggage right.

In my opinion, anyway. I may be completely off base, in which case I apologise and will be quiet.

Yeah, usually when non-American Orgers try to voice opinions on race-related stuff in the US, the general vibe is that we will never really understand the underlying tension. And it's true, we probably won't. You guys just have a unique situation/history, and even though outsiders can form an opinion based on the logistics of it, it's really hard to get the emotional baggage right.

In my opinion, anyway. I may be completely off base, in which case I apologise and will be quiet.

Annika said:

that is only when a Non-American isn't sympathetic to how Americans live in our system, and refuses to see American's viewpoint.. and we have that here.. that doesn't apply to all non-Americans, everyone has an opinion and we should all respect each other (which is part of the problem) .. but folks outright saying that 'Americans need to get over it' stuff for an example... is why conversations get ugly. Now, I literally had a person tell me that 'Americans' should not be posting racist stuff about 'certain issues' IN AMERICA in threads and they don't even live here (it's about AMERICA) ...they were straight serious, no joke....if a person chooses to want to talk about racism in AMERICA, and racism within an organization, they're free to do it, why should someone from another country challenge and get mad at an AMERICAN and tell them, they're wrong for talking about an organization that has racism IN AMERICA in a thread? and then tell them, they need to get over it .. so this is something Americans have to deal with... but again that doesn't apply to all non-Americans, of course everyone has an opinion, but seems there's no respect for other's experiences when it comes to racism IN AMERICA and it's real..... and we should all respect each other and listen to what the other is saying..

Flowers2 said:

PREEEEEACH!

MuthaFunka said:

I tell ya.. these alias accounts and folks round'here pretending to be black.. keeps the comedy going