A conservative activist and former University of California regent urged Americans to make a transition from a race-obsessed to a race-neutral culture Wednesday night.
Ward Connerly led the push to implement a California state ballot initiative that banned racial preferences in university admission policies. His role in the implementation of similar initiatives in three other states, most recently Michigan in 2006, has drawn the ire of affirmative action supporters.
He said that affirmative action has been transformed from a temporary program targeted to ensure blacks were not discriminated against into a permanent policy giving preferences to all minorities and women. Connerly said his goal is to ensure equal treatment under the law for every person when they interact with their government, regardless of sex, race, color, ethnicity or national origin.
Connerly's organization, the American Civil Rights Institute, is pushing for ballot initiatives in five more states. Only 23 states allow such ballot initiatives. Some form of invitation must be made in each state but the institute must decide whether it is prudent to intervene based on a set of several factors, including popular support, monetary cost, chances for success and a consideration of what preferential policies are in place.
While on the University of California Board of Regents in 1996, Connerly's proposal to remove race as a factor in admissions passed by the board. In place of affirmative action policies, a new system of "comprehensive review" of student applications was implemented.
In 2002, Connerly cut his speech at UT short because of persistent heckling at the event. This time, after giving a brief description of the background of the issue, he opened the floor to questions in an attempt to dialogue with students.
Chad Stanton, UT president of the Black Students Alliance, challenged Connerly's assessment that Barack Obama's electoral success is a sign that Americans wanted to move beyond race, during the question session. Stanton dismissed the senator's story as unrepresentative of most black Americans.
Liz Young, president of Young Conservatives of Texas, said if people give Connerly a chance to speak his mind, they will realize they have more in common with him than
they thought.
"The university population usually passes judgment on a speaker's positions before they have heard him out,"
Young said.
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