Irrelevance
of race Irrelevance
of race
Saturday, April 20, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle
www.sfgate.com
SUPPORTERS OF the so-called Racial Privacy Initiative have turned in what may be enough petitions to qualify for the November election ballot. If not, the measure almost certainly would qualify for the March 2004 primary. The initiative is being promoted by Ward Connerly, who in 1996 successfully pushed Proposition 209, which effectively banned affirmative action.
It will be interesting to hear their evidence to support a constitutional amendment that can only be justified in a state where equality has been realized. Under the Racial Privacy Initiative, state and local governments would be prohibited from classifying individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity, color or national origin.
Perhaps RPI supporters will make a persuasive case that elementary students of all ethnic groups are performing at comparable levels, so there is no need to worry about whether educational approaches are missing particular groups for particular reasons.
Maybe they will show Californians that all ethnic groups are getting a fair shot at government jobs and contracts, and the proverbial "old boys' network" is a thing of the past. Interestingly, the initiative makes a specific exception to allow police officers to publicly identify the race of a particular suspect -- fair enough - - but it would not allow a police department to maintain records that show the race of drivers it has stopped and searched.
Apparently Connerly and friends will convince us that the insidious practice of "racial profiling" is history. And the campaign no doubt is ready to persuade voters that race has become so irrelevant that we no longer have to worry about discrimination creeping back into society. The campaign will tell us there is no more need for what Connerly calls "these silly little race boxes."
The state would officially dissolve the notion of "underrepresented minorities" at its elite public universities; will our eyes agree on a walk across the UC Berkeley campus? Does it matter? It should be quite a debate, the sooner the better.
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.
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