WASHINGTON, D.C.
Michigan voters may have ended affirmative action programs in the state but they have not ended the debate. The predicted impact of the voter-approved Proposal 2, along with two upcoming U.S. Supreme Court cases on race-conscious school assignments, continues to ignite arguments for and against affirmative action.
An expert panel convened in Washington on Thursday was the site of just one of the recent debates. Sponsored by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism, it was moderated by Newsweek contributing editor and columnist Ellis Cose, the author of Killing Affirmative Action: Would ending it really result in a better, more perfect Union?
According to Cose, California’s anti-affirmative action legislation, Proposition 209, resulted in a huge drop in minority enrollment in the state’s leading colleges and universities. Minority contractors also saw their business decrease.
“Proposal 2 will have a greater impact on the University of Michigan and other state universities. The size and demographics of Michigan are on a much larger scale than California,” Cose said. Michigan is 80 percent White and 14 percent Black. If minorities, who represent a majority in California, have been negatively affected by an affirmative action ban, the prohibition doesn’t bode well for minorities in predominantly White states like Michigan.
“The court challenges will come and go away, and schools will have to wrestle with the fact that affirmative action measures are there to stay,” said Cose. “The question is how far will society and government go to promote diversity in education?”
Studies indicate a continued need for affirmative action programs, said Dennis D. Parker, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program. A Black woman with a college degree earns only $800 more than a White man with a high school diploma, he said, and a Black man with no criminal record has a more difficult time finding a job than a White man who has a criminal record.
