Ward Connerly
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Ward Connerly (born June 15, 1939) is a former University of California Regent, moderate conservative political activist, and businessman. He is also the founder and the chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, a national non-profit organization that purports to educate the public about alleged problems created by racial and gender preferences [1]. He is considered to be the man behind the controversial California's Proposition 209 outlawing race and gender-based preferences in state hiring and state university admissions, widely known as affirmative action. His twelve-year tenure on the Board of Regents ended on January 20, 2005.
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[edit] Early life
Wardell Anthony Connerly was born June 15, 1939 in Leesville, Louisiana. His father, Roy Connerly, left the household when he was two years old and his mother died when he was four. The young Connerly went to live first with an aunt and uncle and then a grandmother. He attended Sacramento State College, eventually receiving a bachelor of arts with honors in political science in 1962. While in college, Connerly was student body president and actively involved with Delta Phi Omega, later becoming an honorary member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. During his college years he was active in campaigning against housing discrimination and helped to get a bill passed by the state legislature banning the practice. After college he worked for a number of state agencies and Assembly committees, including the Sacramento re-development agency, the state department of housing and urban development, and State Assembly committee on urban affairs. It was during the late 1960s that he became friends with then-legislator Pete Wilson, who would later become governor in 1991. At the suggestion of Wilson, in 1973 he stepped away from his government job and started his own consultation and land use planning company. In 1993 he was appointed to the University of California board of regents. He is married, and has two children.
Connerly currently is a member of the Rotary Club of Sacramento, California and has been inducted as a lifetime member into the California Building Industry Hall of Fame.
[edit] Support of political campaigns against affirmative action
After his appointment to the University of California board of regents in 1993, Connerly began to expound his controversial views on affirmative action. After listening to Jerry and Ellan Cook in 1994, whose son was rejected at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School, Connerly was convinced that affirmative action as practiced in the University of California was in fact racial discrimination. Jerry Cook, a statistician, presented statistics showing that whites and Asians were systematically denied admission despite having better grades and test scores than other students who were admitted. This was never denied by the administrators of the UC system, and it led Connerly to propose abolishing these controversial programs, though his proposal would still allow social or economic factors to be considered. The regents passed the proposal in January, 1996 despite protests from activist Jesse Jackson and other Affirmative Action supporters. Some believe that UC was discriminating against Asian applicants because their numbers increased dramatically the year following the abolition of affirmative action. UC regents countered by developing new ways to assist historically disadvantaged students, including essay requirements that served to reveal the applicant's race and ethnicity.
In 1994, a movement started by a group of academics had begun with the intent to get a ballot measure passed banning these types of programs in admissions and hiring by any state public employer, school, or contractor. Connerly had been hesitant to join the movement because he claimed he was afraid of reprisals against his family and business but eventually by the end of 1995 became the chairman of the California Civil Rights Initiative Campaign and helped get the initiative on the California ballot as Proposition 209. It passed by a 54% majority, despite attempts to defeat it from groups such the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller foundations, the ACLU, and the California Teacher's Association. Connerly, in 1997, formed the American Civil Rights Institute to take their cause nationwide. Connerly first decided to support a similar ballot measure in Washington which would later pass by 58%. After Washington, he would turn his efforts to Florida in order to get a measure on the ballot in the 2000 Florida election. The Florida Supreme Court (that would later that year be overturned by the US Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore) put restrictions on the petition language, and Governor Jeb Bush later implemented, through a program called "One Florida," key portions of Connerly's proposal, helping to keep it off the ballot by accomplishing some of its key objectives through legislation. During this time, Connerly also became a supporter of an initiative to provide health benefits for domestic partners employed by the UC system which was barely passed by the regents.
In 2003, Connerly returned to the political spotlight in California, pushing a ballot measure he helped place on the ballot that would prohibit the state government from classifying any person by race, ethnicity, color, or national origin, with some exception. Critics were concerned that such a measure would make it difficult to track housing discrimination and racial profiling activities. The measure was also criticized by newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times, that claimed it would hamper legitimate medical and scientific purposes. In the end, Connerly's poorly-funded campaign lost.
Following the 2003 Supreme Court rulings in Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger, Connerly was invited to Michigan by Jennifer Gratz to support a measure similar to the 1996 California amendment. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative MCRI appeared on the November 2006 Michigan ballot and passed.
[edit] Political views
Ward Connerly sees himself as a Republican with a libertarian philosophy. Despite his close political relationship with former California Governor Pete Wilson and their agreement on the question of Affirmative Action, he spearheaded efforts to grant domestic partner benefits to gay and lesbian couples in all state universities against Wilson's objection. He says his views on gay rights stem from his libertarian viewpoint that governments, including government-run universities, should not discriminate, whether it's favoring some students because of their race, or limiting spousal benefits to others based on their sexual orientation.
Further, Connerly's support for domestic partner benefits earned him the ire of the conservative advocacy groups Family Research Council and Traditional Values Coalition.[3]. Robert Knight, Director of Cultural Studies at the Family Research Council, had this to say regarding Connerly, "no true conservative would equate homosexual households with marriages, because we believe that without marriage and family as paramount values, hell will break loose."
[edit] Controversy
Connerly's embrace of his full multiracial heritage, rather than just opting for his African ancestry has been a subject of debate. Connerly says he is only one-fourth black with the rest a mix of Irish, French, and Choctaw. On July 9, 1997, Connerly's advocacy organization, the American Civil Rights Institute, expressed disappointment with the federal government's decision to reject the addition of a multiracial category on the Census and other government forms that collect racial data [4]. This press release was the beginning of Connerly's alliance with prominent members of what has become known as the multiracial movement. Prior to spearheading the Racial Privacy Initiative in California, Connerly forged ties with the publishers of Interracial Voice and The Multiracial Activist, prominent publications for the multiracial movement. Eventually, Connerly enlisted the help of several outspoken members of the multiracial movement to assist with the execution of the Racial Privacy Initiative.
Connerly's opposition to affirmative action has generated controversy. Connerly believes affirmative action is a form of racism and that people can achieve success without preferential treatment in college enrollment or in employment. His critics contend that he fails to recognize the problems resulting from past racism, and that he fails to recognize that affirmative action programs can overcome the alleged residual effects of past discrimination on people of color[citation needed]. Connerly's supporters argue that Asians and modern African immigrants, despite having ancestors who suffered the same discrimination, and having come from very poor backgrounds, have had dramatic success without any need for racial preference programs. They contend that, despite past discrimination, Asian-Americans have seen their enrollment numbers skyrocket immediately following the abolishment of affirmative action admission programs. Critics of affirmative action also point out that the beneficiaries of these programs are overwhelmingly European-American women and middle-to upper-class minorities. Critics of Connerly have countered that many Asian and African immigrants had parents who were already educated and had already achieved middle class status in their countries of origin. This argument supports the concept that a person's life circumstances are more determined by parental and ancestral status and by circumstances occurring far in the past than by any personal effort or responsibility. However, this also supports the idea that a person's present economic status, rather than race, is more predictive of that person's future success.
The Detroit-based pro-affirmative action group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) claims that Connerly, as CEO of Connerly & Associates, Inc., his Sacramento based real estate corporation, has benefitted financially from affirmative action programs in contracting, although BAMN has provided no evidence to support these claims. BAMN also claims that as a spokesman for the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI) and the American Civil Rights Coalition (ACRC), Connerly earned as much as $400,000, by which BAMN questions Connerly's true motives. BAMN seeks a repeal of Proposition 209 and a return to affirmative action programs, especially in campus admissions. BAMN has recently opposed Connerly's efforts to put the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI)on the 2006 Michigan Ballot, and recently disrupted a Michigan Board of Canvassers meeting by loudly protesting and overturning a table [5].
Connerly's multiracial identity and views on affirmative action have led to him being labeled a "self-hating black" by some of his critics. In 1995, former State Senator Diane Watson said about him, "He's married to a white woman. He wants to be white. He wants a colorless society. He has no ethnic pride. He doesn't want to be black."[1][2]
Connerly has also been accused of hypocrisy for supporting domestic partner benefits for gay couples while opposing affirmative action. Connerly's supporters point out that this is not contradictory: he opposes discrimination, whether it is against gays, or any racial, religious, or ethnic group. In this regard, Connerly disparages the term "reverse" discrimination. To Connerly and supporters, racial discrimination is indistinguishable, regardless of which racial or ethnic group is the target[citation needed].
Another controversy arose after publication of Connerly's autobiography. Some relatives have claimed his accounts of an impoverished childhood were exaggerated or simply false. However, Connerly's aunt corroborates his account. Pooley suggested that the relatives who contradicted Connerly’s anecdotes about his poor childhood might be doing so due to disagreements with his politics.[citation needed]
Connerly has made controversial remarks regarding racial segregation on several occasions including the following:
On a CNN interview in December 2002 he said "Supporting segregation need not be racist. One can believe in segregation and believe in equality of the races," in response to a question regarding former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott.
He told the San Francisco Chronicle in September of 2003 "I don't care whether they are segregated or not . . . kids need to be learning, and I place more value on these kids getting educated than I do on whether we have some racial balancing or not." regarding whether his Proposition 54 could derail school integration efforts in California public schools[6].
Firelight Media interviewed Connerly for their documentary video "Arise: The Battle Over Affirmative Action" in which he comments; "If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right, God bless them," Connerly says. "Thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are being applied, instead of hate."
Connerly issued a written statement clarifying his earlier remarks regarding one of the Ku Klux Klan organization's support for his Michigan campaign to outlaw affirmative action quotas and set-asides. Connerly's statement read, "Throughout my life I have made absolutely clear my disdain for the KKK. However, like all Americans, I hope that this group will move beyond its ugly history and agree that equality before the law is the ideal. If they or any group accepts equality for all people, I will be the first to welcome them."[7]
[edit] External links
- Ward Connerly Biography
- "Racial Preferences Are Dead", interview in Reason by Michael W. Lynch.
- "Let's Rid Ourselves of Those Silly Race Boxes ", commentary inThe Abolitionist Examiner by Ward Connerly.
