CONNERLY DISCUSSES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Race should be irrelevant, says affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute.

Connerly attacked affirmative action in a speech to a mostly white audience at Southeast Missouri State University. About 75 people attended the event in Glenn Auditorium.

Connerly, who is black, has gained national attention for his opposition to racial and gender preferences.

"You don't use race to get beyond race," he said.

Government preferences in regards to race and gender in employment, education and contracts is wrong, he said.

Connerly said race shouldn't have been included in the 2000 census.

"I think it's baggage for the country," It creates resentment while marginalizing Americans on the basis of race, he said.

When multiracial categories are added to the mix, there are 32,000 different racial categories that could be counted by the government, Connerly said. "It's becoming insane."

The strength of this nation centers on personal, political freedom, he said. "We are all just individuals. We are minorities of one."

As a member of the University of California Board of Regents, Connerly focused national attention on the university's race-based system of preferences in its admissions policy.

The eight-campus California university system had required higher standards for white and Asian students to be admitted to the school than for blacks. Connerly said that amounted to discrimination.

"I concluded we were discriminating, but we were calling it diversity," he said.

On July 29, 1995, following Connerly's lead, the regents voted to end the university's use of race as a means of admission.

Connerly also helped lead efforts toward the California Civil Rights Initiative on the November 1996 ballot. Proposition 209 prohibited the use of preferences in public education, government or public contracts.

California voters passed the measure by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent.

Connerly has been criticized by affirmative action supporters often during his visits to college campuses around the country. Criticizing affirmative action is difficult on college campuses, said Connerly, who opposes race-based scholarships at tax-supported institutions.

The issue of race often brings strong reactions. "It's always a raw nerve in our nation," Connerly said.

In the past, the issues were more clearly defined: Slavery or freedom, segregation or integration, he said.

"We know the nation wasn't always fair to people who looked like me," he told the crowd. But Americans, he said, need to get beyond the issue of race. "We cannot go on forever with black people on one page and whites on another," he said.

At Monday night's speech, two black women in the audience argued there are sound reasons for affirmative action laws.

"People need to be helped. They need to be shown a way out," one woman said. "In a democracy, we all deserve some type of chance."

The other woman said she and other blacks view affirmative action as a "safeguard against discrimination."

But Connerly said 70 percent of whites favor ending racial preferences. Many blacks do too, he said.

Connerly said Proposition 209 garnered support from 30 percent of black voters. He suggested another 40 percent of blacks have "some misgivings" about affirmative action.

"I think a lot of people have race fatigue," said Connerly. "They are tired of hearing about it."