Nows the time for blowing up spots...
The next few posts will be a mini-series (not of the Roots quality) of portraits on enemies and allies (maybe even a frienemy or 2) of the struggle. Won't be as dry as it sounds, just work with me. Many people don't get the shine they deserve for doing grunt work, trying to make our country more equitable. And others need to be put on blast for setting all of us back.
So here goes: First up is none other than the man to our right Wardell Anthony Connerly. Known better as Ward Connerly. Known to me as Strom Thurmond's long lost black son.
And perhaps he is a member of the Thurmond clan, especially since the brother claims to be a quadroon. Seems like somebody thinks they have a lil Indian in their family. Although his birthname is Wardell he has convinced himself he has only 1 black ancestor. cue the Jigga line, "we don't believe you, you need more people".
Anyway, this recluctant brotherman has made it his business to dismantle affirmative action nationwide one state at a time. He is jacking the same strategy that the dream team of the Brown decision,Thurgood "No Good" Marshall, James Nebrit and Charles Hamilton Houston, used for good. Making something popular as a state initiave, slowly gaining momentum until it becomes national policy.
Remember Prop 209, which ended affirmative action in all California state institutions? That was all him. After it's passage, the UC system's enrollment of Black and Latino students hit record lows.
And most recently, he spearheaded the efforts to end affirmative actions policies in Michigan. Calling the amendment the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (who doesn't like civil rights? ), the bill which passed las fall ended the state's policies to eradicated glaring inequities still faced by women and people of color. Guess most of the residents of Detroit are going to have to move to Ohio. Hopefully Wardell doens't make that his next pit stop.
He doesn't worry about the outcomes of his crusades to roll back the advances of women and people of color, and the Supreme Court seems to think that we'll only need affirmative actions policies for the next 25 years, then the need would have magically solved itself.
Affirmative action's biggest impact is felt on university and college campus, so how will they look 20 years on? Will public universities become more and more closed off to the working class, women and students of color, bearing more resemblance to Harvard circa 1915, than a multi-cultural 21st century America? Private schools and corporations have proven adept at circumventing these rulings, coming up with new ways to achieve a diverse population. However the public sector has been less and less given to affirmative action practices? And to the ones who are against it as unfair, well having a 400 year headstart isn't fair either. (Let's save this debate for the obligatory Black History Month coverage).
If only Wardell would just sit down somewhere and stop messing with progress.
