by Phil Kent, SLF President
As appeared in The Augusta Chronicle, Dec. 28, 2002
U.S. Sen. Trent Lott's multiple apologies and vast promises to support affirmative action "across the board" pose a threat to well-settled areas of our law and our culture, even though he has stepped down as Senate majority leader.
Lott's troubles, brought on by a thoughtless and, by his own admission, racially insensitive remark about segregation-era politics that the nation long ago repudiated, are just that - Lott's troubles. As he wildly caroms about trying to conjure up some evidence of his new-found racial sensitivity, he is trashing positions that millions of Americans - not to mention the courts - have affirmed as truth: Government-sponsored racial quotas discriminate against individuals just like segregation-era policies did. Both are wrong.
It has become clear that the potential collateral damage inflicted by Lott's efforts to save his post, namely, that he now "supports" affirmative action, is simply too high a price to pay.
Lott's change of opinion on affirmative action, apparently an effort to reform his image, in fact flies in the face of President George W. Bush's blunt assessment. The president noted that Lott's remarks were inconsistent with the values affirming the equal dignity and equal rights of individuals without regard to race. Lott's joking sentimentality about a failed 1948 segregationist presidential campaign, as well as his most recent statements now embracing unconstitutional "affirmative action" quotas, miss the mark on all accounts.
It must be pointed out that, despite its benign name, most government-sponsored affirmative action programs are nothing more than institutionalized racism. As a result, in hundreds of cases brought to the courts by Southeastern Legal Foundation and other organizations, not one government-sponsored, race-quota program for public contracting has survived court scrutiny since the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1989 decision in City of Richmond v. Croson.
In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has just agreed to hear two Michigan cases that we hope will end altogether the practice of admitting students to colleges and universities based on the color of their skin rather than their educational qualifications. At a time when the high court is poised to once and for all end the shameful regime of racial quotas, Lott abandons the constitutional goals of equal rights and equal dignity.
To be sure, there is legal affirmative action, that is, color-blind affirmative action that reaches into the heart of the problem without resort to racial preferences. Cities like Detroit, New York, Miami/Dade County, and Milwaukee have undertaken forward-thinking programs to aid local, small and disadvantaged businesses - resulting in higher minority participation than under old, illegal race-quota programs struck down by the courts. And, of course, courts are allowed to take account of race in remediating proven constitutional violations.
As exemplified by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, it is difficult to challenge inherently racist government policies. The persistent and, alas, successful opposition to race-quota affirmative action by organizations like my own has come at great cost by exposing us to sometimes violent, hateful criticism. We fight those battles because we believe in a color-blind society in which the government doesn't make decisions based on race - just as it guarantees in the U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Lott may have changed his mind about affirmative action. He has chosen to go against the tide of nearly 15 years of federal court case law and, as a lawmaker, that makes him a dangerous man.
Conservatives and common-sense civil rights advocates cannot abide a senator who sells out core issues for potential personal advantage. The senator needs to climb back aboard the freedom train. The best, safest and morally correct road for Lott is to embrace vigorous enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, constitutional guarantees of equal treatment under the law and the end of polarizing racial quotas.
Note to Sen. Lott: Apologize one more time - for supporting affirmative action and undermining a color-blind America.
