Hartford Web Publishing.Battle lines over affirmative action were drawn on both coasts last week. In Washington, President Clinton defended affirmative action in a tough speech at the National Archives. He said that the American people must come together to work for racial and economic equality. The president said "evidence suggests, indeed screams" that "[t]he job of ending discrimination in this country is not over."
On the other side of the country, Pete Wilson, governor of California, a state rich in history and electoral votes, strong-armed the University of California regents into ending affirmative action last week, a decision that was widely denounced by students and others. Wilson, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, has made opposition to affirmative action the center piece of his campaign.
In his speech, Clinton said affirmative action "give[s] our nation a way to finally address the systematic exclusion of individuals of talent, on the basis of their race or gender." Backing up his words with action, he ordered the Justice Department and other federal agencies to "review" contracts with the California university system in light of last week's decision.
White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta accused Gov. Wilson, who supported affirmative action programs in the past, of running a divisive campaign that could hurt the state. California could lose millions of dollars in federal research money and contracts if it disregards equal opportunity laws.
Clinton's speech was praised by labor and civil rights leaders, who said that the president set the right moral and practical tone for the country. William Bywater, president of the International Union of Electronic Workers (IUE), gave President Clinton an "A" for his speech. In a telephone interview from his Washington office, he said, "I'm pleasantly surprised. It's a hot issue. The president could have backed down and run for cover but he didn't."
The AFL-CIO has taken strong stands in favor of affirmative action in the past. In the July 17 issue of AFL-CIO News, the federation's civil rights director, Richard Womack, criticized a recent Supreme Court decision which will make implementation of affirmative action plans more difficult and expensive. "Although we have made progress ... it is a fact of life in America that discriminations persists," he was quoted as saying.
The IUE's Bywater said the president's stand will help his chances in the next election. Myrlie Evers-Williams, chairwoman of the NAACP, agrees. She said the speech "will help [Clinton] tremendously at the grass-roots level."
The Reverend Jesse Jackson said Clinton "issued a strong moral, legal and practical case for racial and gender equality." Jackson compared the speech to a historic 1965 address by President Lyndon Johnson at Howard University in Washington.
National Organization of Women President Patricia Ireland thought the speech was"strong and powerful. The President finally took a stand that we can be proud of," she said through a spokesperson in Washington.
Recent statistics show that sex and race discrimination are a persistent fact in American life. The unemployment rate for African Americans is twice that of whites. A Latina with a college degree makes about as much as a white male with a high school diploma. The Glass Ceiling Report found that women in the nation's largest companies hold less than 5 percent of senior management posts and the number is even lower for African Americans, Latinos and Asians.
The reality of racism was driven home by the recent "God Ol' Boys" roundup in Polk County, Tennessee. A video of the week-long gathering, which was attended by 300 white law enforcement officials, showed racist signs and a copy of a "Federal N----- Hunting License." Polk County has no Black residents, according to the 1990 census.
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