American Civil Rights Institute

Ward Connerly is leading the drive to make affirmative action illegal.

Featured Topic | Posted 30 weeks 3 days ago

Will states undo affirmative action?

Voters in five states will have the chance this fall to ban affirmative action. Ward Connerly, who spearheaded similar initiatives in California, Michigan and Washington, now has Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma in his crosshairs.

In general, the ballot initiatives say: "The state shall not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to any group or individual on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin."

Is the end near for affirmative action? Should it be?

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Ben likes: Fairness on the ballot

George F. Will/The Washington Post

The conventions that govern America's racial discourse derive from the odious "one drop" rule. According to it, anyone with any admixture of black ancestry -- one drop of black "blood" -- is black. So, Connerly is an African American. One of his grandparents was of African descent, one was Irish, a third was Irish and American Indian, and the fourth was French Canadian. Two of the grandchildren of Connerly and his Irish wife have a Vietnamese mother. Are these grandchildren African Americans?

Will the superstitions surrounding race ever fade away? Not before governance is cleansed of the sort of race-based policies opposed by Connerly, who intimately knows the increasing absurdity of racial classifications and the folly of government preferences based on them.

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Joel likes: Losing the war on affirmative action

Tim Ferholz/Georgetown Voice

Progressives who fight for affirmative action aren’t exactly fighting the establishment anymore; leaders from education, corporations, and the military now affirm their support for affirmative action. Instead, they’re fighting a group of highly organized and sophisticated anti-affirmative action activists.

One of these activists’ favorite arguments is that race-conscious admissions policies favor underqualified minority students over whites—especially poor whites. But data shows it’s more common for an academically underachieving white applicant, thanks to alumni parents or athletic scholarships, to be a given slot over a more qualified lower-income student, than for a minority student to do so because of affirmative action.

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