Ward Connerly

Holistic Review at Santa Cruz

by lbarber on 01/02/2012

in UC,Ward Connerly

I’ve always wondered why a “holistic” admissions review process would increase diversity. If the admissions committee applies such a review to all applicants equally, in what way would it favor blacks and Hispanics?

Perhaps my wondering is in vain and assumptions incorrect.

At any rate, the University of California at Santa Cruz will emphasize “personal achievement” in selecting freshman for fall 2012. An excerpt:

“There are more nuances,” said Michael K. McCawley, UCSC’s associate director of admissions. “We can really try to judge the student in the context of their educational environment. It tries to take into account more information. It’s more fair.”
…
These two reforms are expected to diversify the acceptance pool. They will particularly help students whose statistics — test scores and GPA — are less impressive because they come from schools with few advanced classes. At UCLA, the number of African-American students increased after this approach was used.

Try to be as objective as you can and consider what McCawley means when he uses words like “nuances” and “fair,” and whether “personal achievement” considerations would lead to a corresponding increase in white and Asian students.

The American Civil Rights Institute’s Ward Connerly was quoted in the article:

“I don’t think that every student should earn acceptance merely on the basis of grades and standardized test scores. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for students from disadvantaged schools to compete. As long as it is administered honestly, looking at grades and test scores as part of the equation — and socioeconomics as part of the equation — I favor it.”

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Ward Connerly on Jerry Brown’s Veto

by lbarber on 10/25/2011

in Legislative,Ward Connerly

“Say what you will about California’s enigmatic governor, Edmund G. ‘Jerry’ Brown, but on major issues involving votes of the people, Brown is very reluctant to go against the will of the people, no matter what his personal views happen to be.

“In 1978, during his first term as governor, Brown opposed the highly popular Proposition 13, which was approved by the voters to place a lid on property taxes imposed by local governments.

“In 1996, the voters also approved Proposition 209 by the substantial margin of 55-45 to prohibit preferential treatment on the basis of race, ethnicity and gender in public employment, public education and public contracting.

“On both issues – caps on property taxes and race preferences – Brown was on the opposite side of the majority of the electorate. Notwithstanding this fact, when called upon to take action that was in contradiction of the people’s will, to his credit Brown sided with the people.

“The latest test involved SB 185, a bill that represented priority legislation of the California Legislative Latino Caucus, the majority of whose members do not share a similar respect for the will of the people as Brown.

“SB 185 would have allowed California’s two systems of higher education – the University of California and the California State University systems – to ‘consider’ race, gender and ethnicity in the admissions process. Gratuitously added in SB 185 was a requirement that no ‘preferential treatment’ could be given. The obvious question was how could an admissions officer ‘consider’ race without conferring ‘preferential treatment.’
…
“Brown continued, ‘I wholeheartedly agree with the goal of this legislation. Proposition 209 should be interpreted to allow UC and CSU to consider race and other relevant factors in their admissions policies to the extent permitted under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.’

“While I applaud Brown’s ultimate decision, his support for the ‘goal’ of SB 185 is disturbing. As the California Supreme Court has said quite forcefully, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not countenance race discrimination.”

Read the full article.

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Ward Connerly in the Wall Street Journal

by lbarber on 10/05/2011

in Ward Connerly

“Few government policies have had the reach, immortality and consequences of affirmative action. A policy that could be justified at its start, affirmative action has now become yesterday’s solution to yesterday’s problem. Yet it endures as if nothing has happened in the past 50 years.

“There is an interracial man—although self-identified ‘African-American’—occupying the White House, blacks are on our courts, including the highest court in the land, blacks are mayors of major cities and heads of American corporations.

“Notwithstanding all this, President Barack Obama, who was elected largely because Americans thought he would lead the nation to a Promised Land of post-racialism, recently signed Executive Order 13583 ‘to promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce.’ The irony is that few institutions in America are more ‘diverse’ and ‘inclusive’ than the federal government, where the workforce is 17% black while blacks are roughly 13% of the U.S. population.

“In addition to the president’s executive order, the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law included Section 342, promoted by Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), which should be called the “White Male Exclusion Act.’ It establishes in all federal financial regulatory agencies an ‘Office of Minority and Women Inclusion’ with responsibility for ‘diversity in management, employment and business activities.’

“It is doubtful that anyone can name a government agency that does not include an affirmative-action office or ‘diversity’ department in its structure. The infrastructure of the diversity network is vast.

“More than anything else, the pursuit of diversity overshadows and subordinates excellence and competence and often makes us content with mediocrity. The late economist Milton Friedman once told me that ‘Freedom to compete fairly for university admissions, jobs and contracts is central to all that America professes to be.’”

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal.

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On Jerry Brown’s Desk

by lbarber on 10/04/2011

in UC,Ward Connerly

Will he or won’t he? California’s governor, Jerry Brown, is consider whether to sign into law a bill that would allow the California State University and the University of California systems to consider race when deciding to admit or deny students admission.

Brown supports lowered standards for certain racial minorities in the name of diversity, but he also has a duty to uphold the state’s constitution, which bars the government from discriminating against or granting preferences to individuals or groups in employment, contracting, and education on the basis of race. Fifteen years ago, 54 percent of the voters banned the practice.

“I believe he disagrees with 209,” Pacific Legal Foundation lead attorney Sharon Browne told the Los Angeles Times. “But I would hope that he understands that it’s really up to the people to amend 209, not the Legislature.”

Ed Hernandez, the state senator who authored the bill, said he’s going to do “everything in my power” to bring race back into the admissions equation, despite his oath to uphold the state constitution.

The American Civil Rights Institute’s Ward Connerly said Hernandez’s bill is an attempt to “create an illusion that there is some distinction between considering race and giving a preference.”

Jerry Brown will sign the bill into law, and the majority’s decision will be nullified. The battle for race neutrality in government continues.

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Berkeley Bake Sale Aftermath

by lbarber on 09/28/2011

in UC,Ward Connerly

One of the few balanced stories I’ve read about the Berkeley College Republican’s “affirmative action” bake sale appeared in the LA Times. An excerpt:

“Under the bake sale’s satirical pricing structure, whites were supposed to pay $2 for the same pastry that would cost Native Americans 25 cents. (The Republican club, however, accepted whatever people chose to pay.) Supporters formed a protective barrier around the group’s table on Tuesday; Proposition 209 author and former UC Regent Ward Connerly, who is black, showed up to help the students sell frosted cupcakes.

“Republican campus clubs have held such sales over the years to challenge racial preference policies. But this time social media spread the news worldwide, prompting outrage and praise for the organizers. The event spawned a secondary debate about civility and respect.

“‘It’s kind of ugly,” said 21-year-old gender and women’s studies major Tatianna Peck, who held a sign in mock protest of the exclusion of ‘queer people’ from the pricing structure. ‘It’s … forcing people into a defensive position instead of an honest place of listening.’

“On Sunday, the Associated Students of the University of California Senate passed a resolution condemning ‘the use of discrimination whether it is in satire or in seriousness.’ In a message Monday, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and two vice chancellors endorsed that position and said that the strong reactions to the bake sale provided ‘a vivid lesson that issues of race, ethnicity and gender are far from resolved.’”

The college Republicans didn’t actually discriminate, of course. Despite the price list, students could pay whatever they wanted for the baked goods. The price list pointed to “affirmative action” polices that treat students differently based on race. And no matter how many times people say nasty things about Ward Connerly or wonder why a black woman would “defend white people,” the object lesson remains:

Pricing cupcakes according to the skin color of the buyer, even as satire, evokes responses that range from slight annoyance to visceral rage. Good! As long as government institutions, supported by taxpayers, lower standards for certain minorities, regardless of the reason, people who oppose the practice will continue to speak out and demonstrate and expose the inconsistency. Get as angry as you’d like, but follow the logic and see the hypocrisy.

Connerly’s statement about the bake sale and SB 185:

“In 1996, the people of California enshrined the principle of equal treatment for all Californians in their State Constitution. Since that time, there have been many attempts to circumvent the will of the people by allowing race and ethnic preferences in college admissions. SB185, an identical version of which was vetoed by former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on two occasions, is now on the desk of Governor Jerry Brown awaiting signature. Fortunately, for the people of California the Berkeley College Republicans are calling attention to this abuse of legislative power by their satirical ‘Diversity Bake Sale.’

I strongly support their efforts and will attend their event and sell baked goods alongside them as a measure of my support. It is unfortunate that Senator Ed Hernandez (author of SB 185) and the California Legislative Latino Caucus have such disregard for the people of California that they would take this back door action to thwart the will of the California electorate.”

(Photo credit: Associated Press)

Also see:

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Has Ed Hernandez Read Prop 209?

September 2, 2011

Earlier this year, California state senator Ed Hernandez introduced SB 185, a bill that would require the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) to consider race and other non-academic factors in admissions “so long as no preference is given.” Despite a constitutional amendment that bars the government from discriminating against or granting [...]

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BAMN at Berkeley

August 30, 2011

The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrants Rights And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (don’t laugh—they’re serious), a group that believes racial minorities have a constitutional right to preferential treatment and race-neutral government creates a racial caste system, is teaching a two-unit class at the University of California at Berkeley. You [...]

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Is Race-Neutral Government At Risk in California?

July 12, 2011

Here’s a shocker: California governor Jerry Brown supports the lawsuit against the state’s constitutional amendment that mandates racial neutrality in government employment, contacting, and education. In Coral Construction v. City Of San Francisco, a case in which two contractors challenged San Francisco’s race-based preferential treatment ordinance, Brown submitted a letter in favor of the discriminatory [...]

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Ward Connerly Heads to Humboldt County

June 8, 2011

While a University of California Regent, Ward Connerly saw how unfair racial preferences were to whites and Asians in the UC system, and how demeaning they were to blacks. In 1995, the American Civil Rights Institute president spearheaded a campaign that eventually would end racial preferences in California, Washington, Michigan, Nebraska, and Arizona. Connerly is [...]

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Ward Connerly Comments on Jim Crow

May 20, 2011

Separation of the races was mandated by our government. The goal of various civil rights movements in this country was to prohibit the government from discriminating on account of skin color and to reiterate that race has no place in American law. Unfortunately, the government continues treating people differently based on the color of their [...]

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