Ward Connerly, the black man from California behind the initiative to dismantle Missouri's affirmative action laws, is going to be on the hot seat today when he appears on "The Real Deal" radio show with hosts Tim Person and Syl Wilson.
The show aires from 4:00-5:00 p.m. on WGNU 920 AM.
From Wikipedia:
Wardell Anthony Connerly was born June 15, 1939, in Leesville, Louisiana. Connerly has stated he is one-fourth black, with the rest a mix of Irish, French, and Choctaw. His father, Roy Connerly, left the household when Ward was 2, and his mother died when Ward was 4. The young Connerly went to live first with an aunt and uncle and then a grandmother.
He attended Sacramento State College, eventually receiving a bachelor of arts with honors in political science in 1962 . While in college, Connerly was student body president and actively involved with Delta Phi Omega, later becoming an honorary member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. During his college years, Connerly was active in campaigning against housing discrimination and helped to get a bill passed by the state legislature banning the practice.
After college, he worked for a number of state agencies and Assembly committees, including the Sacramento re-development agency, the state department of housing and urban development, and State Assembly committee on urban affairs. It was during the late 1960s that he became friends with then-legislator Pete Wilson, who would later become governor in 1991 . At the suggestion of Wilson, in 1973 he stepped away from his government job and started his own consultation and land-use planning company. In 1993 he was appointed to the University of California board of regents.
Connerly is married to Ilene Connerly who is his equal partner in the firm of Connerly & Associates and they have two children.
On May 8, 1995, two years after he went public with his anti-affirmative action views, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Connerly had taken advantage of a minority preference program on multiple occasions in the 1990s. The article was based on the paper's review of the records of California's State Energy Commission which showed that Connerly had listed his firm, Connerly & Associates, as a minority-owned firm, and that Connerly's firm received more than $1 million in state government contracts.
The article included excerpts of an interview with Connerly in which he admitted that he only participated in the minority preference program to comply with state law [4]. However, the Chronicle published a correction on May 18, 1995, stating that their original source had erred and that Connerly's firm had not been registered as minority-owned at the time the State Energy Commission contract was awarded [5].
As Connerly pointed out in a story published by the Associated Press on May 9, 1995, due to the state's requirement that 15 percent of state contracts be given to minority-owned firms, he would have been placed in the position of having "to find a minority to turn over 15 percent of a contract which has an 8 percent profit at best." [6]
[Wikipedia Note: This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality.]
Labels: Media_Watch, Race
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5 Comments:
I wonder how Ward will explain the Pinnacle Casino Project.
83% of its workers are white in a city that is 60%+ Black.
????
Can he site any construction project on the scale of the Pinnacle Casino that 83% of the work done was minority workers?
????
His argument that race should not be a factor in the work place is what we should be striving for, but we are clearly not at that point.
6/20/2007 12:18 PM
Connerly will put the affirmative action question on the ballot.
It tends to spell the end of affirmative action, at least it did in Michigan, and that is with virtually all business, churches and academia wanting to preserve affirmative action. Michigan's economy is going through a tougher stretch than Missouri's, and that may or may not have been a mitigating factor.
I don't see affirmative action surviving a ballot initiative here, not by a long shot.
As for Pinnacle, he might point to low high school graduation rates of African American males, as well as comparing the region's racial make up to the employees would be more beneficial than just the city's. Workers come from the region, not just the city.
6/20/2007 3:38 PM
That argument dosent fly Butterfly.
"he might point to low high school graduation rates of African American males"
Last time I checked all you need to get into the construction trades program is a G.E.D. Having a highschool GPA is not a factor.
As to participation in the project. Pinnacle signed an agrement that they would have over 25% minority participation. They haven't done this.
Cardinal’s Stadium and the Casino Queen projects reached about 25%.
Why cant Pinnacle do whats right?
6/20/2007 5:04 PM
I listened to this program. I did not hear a clear answer to my main question, whether or not Connerly acknowledges that persistent and institutionalized racism still exists. A caller asked him if he believed that racism is still "rampant." Connerly said, "not rampant, but . . ." and then the caller cut him off, demanding a yes or no answer to his question. I would have liked to hear what Connerly was going to say.
Perhaps others did hear an answer to this question? Please share what you know.
6/20/2007 5:42 PM
How about this, compare the GED/diploma having, clean record having african american males versus the GED/diploma having, clean record having non-african american males. I surmise that african american males have a lower GED/diploma rate and have a higher rate of incarceration/past incarceration than males of the general population.
As for Pinnacle not living up to the contract, that is not right, the contract governs and they should be made to live up to it. I hope the contract spelled out penalties so it is easy to adjudicate. I am not huge fan of set asides, but if a contract is signed, a contract must be honored.
6/20/2007 5:46 PM
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