The colorblind society?

Oct. 11, 2006

Whenever a ballot proposal starts off on a deceptive note, we need to be on guard. Such is the case with the “Michigan Civil Rights Initiative,” or Proposal 2, which uses the bait-and-switch approach to wrap itself in the heritage of the civil rights movement while attempting to roll back 50 years of progress for minorities and women.
The people behind Proposal 2 have goals which sound lofty -- they claim they are trying to create a colorblind society where everyone is equal. Proposal 2 would end “preferences based on race, sex, skin color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, public contracting and college admissions.”
If passed by voters this November, Proposal 2 would affect public employment, public education, and public contracting throughout Michigan.
Presto-chango: an instant equal society -- all problems solved.
But the devil is in the details.
For instance, Proposal 2 would mean the end of state-funded scholarships for young women seeking careers in science. It would open legal avenues for ending Title IX sports for girls. And of course, it would limit opportunities for minority students at state colleges and universities. For starters.
Opponents of Proposal 2 have made some claims that are hard to sort out. They say it would have a devastating impact on Michigan at a time when diversity is the new standard for competing globally. And that it would wreck countless programs for women and minorities because it‘s too open-ended.
Who knows? But it says something that both candidates Gov. Granholm and Dick DeVos oppose Proposal 2, as do many major corporations, such as DTE. The proposal is also opposed by groups as ideologically diverse as The Catholic Conference and the National Organization for Women.
But let’s assume that the backers of Proposal 2 are onto something when they claim that we now have an equitable society where the safeguards of the past are no longer needed.
Spokesman Ward Connerly, a black American who led a similar campaign in California, claims that he and his backers are trying to create a “colorblind” society. Some claim that racism is no longer tolerated in America, and that we no longer need to consider the needs of women or African-Americans in public education or employment.
Have we really come that far, so soon? Are large numbers of Americans rushing into interracial marriages? Are white folks now flooding back into America’s cities because they see no differences between themselves and their black brothers and sisters? Are we all in agreement now that O.J. really did kill Nicole? Or that he was innocent as a lamb? Have we elected a black woman President to office? Where is the evidence of the colorblind society?
Come to think of it, why did we establish Affirmative Action in the first place?
For the answer, take a trip down memory lane to the ‘60s when the cities of America were going up in smoke.
In the aftermath of the riots of the ‘60s which torched Detroit, Newark, Watts and black neighborhoods in virtually every major American city, studies found remarkably similar causes.
Police brutality in the ghettos was a major cause. Many city police departments were virtually all white, with as few as 5% of the force made up of black Americans. According to a Rutgers University report, in Detroit, four-man police squads roamed the ghettos, stopping people on any pretense and commonly addressing youths as “boy” and “nigger.” Police shootings and beatings were routine. When police raided an after-hours “blind pig” bar in the summer of 1967, it wasn’t the arrest of 82 people on the scene that sparked the riot, but the violent treatment of those being arrested which was witnessed by others.
Other causes of the riots: Lack of affordable housing; only 39% of African-Americans owned their own homes in 1960, compared to 64% of whites. And real estate firms and home insurers conspired to keep blacks out of white neighborhoods. A six-foot-high wall was built along one stretch of Eight Mile Road in Detroit to send blacks a message that they weren’t welcome to share in America’s prosperity. Along 12th Street in Detroit, where the riot began, people were so densely packed that six to eight families lived where two families had resided before.
Then there was unemployment. In 1968, the Hughes Commission found that: “Among 16-19 year old Negro men, more than a third—37.8% were jobless.”
Blacks were cut out of political power, college opportunities, business... In Detroit, an area called “Black Bottom,” the thriving business and entertainment district of the African-American community, was bulldozed under in order to create the I-75 freeway. And only a few years before, federal troops had to be called out in states such as Alabama and Arkansas just to allow black children to enter all-white schools.
In short, people weren’t as tolerant back then as they are now. They weren’t as nice. What changed all that? Affirmative Action, the reforms of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, and the creation of the black middle class. Keep it going.
We’re better now than we used to be, but we’re not perfect. Maybe in another generation -- say 30 years -- we really will have a colorblind society and there will be no need for Affirmative Action or safeguards for women and girls. Maybe then a Proposal 2 will make perfect sense. Not now.