Calif. Activist Seeks End To Identification by Race
 

Ward Connerly, the activist behind the referendum that effectively ended race-conscious affirmative action programs in California, has a proposal for reducing the role of race in government decisions even further: He wants the state to stop identifying its residents by race, ethnicity, color or national origin.

California, the nation's most populous and most racially and ethnically diverse state, collects the data on birth and death certificates, school enrollment forms and other records used in demographic and medical research. But Connerly has collected enough signatures to put his proposal on the California ballot, in March or possibly sooner.

Given Connerly's track record -- he also inspired an effort that ended race-conscious affirmative action in Washington state -- the referendum is galvanizing sentiment for and against.

In response to the Supreme Court's recent decision allowing the limited use of race in university admissions, he is said to be planning campaigns for referendums that would ban that practice in Michigan, where the Supreme Court case originated, and several other states or localities. But his current campaign in California moves the battle to a new ground: collecting the data that shape such programs.

Connerly, for his part, says that "the business of government characterizing its citizens is crude," and that his plan would foster something to which many Americans aspire: a colorblind society.

His supporters, which include the state Republican Party and John Moores, owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team, say they agree with Connerly's assessment that "race is irrelevant" nearly 40 years after civil rights laws were first enacted. Connerly's organization, the American Civil Rights Institute, helped collect more than a million signatures on petitions to get the initiative on the ballot.

California law prohibits corporations from including questions about race, ethnicity and birthplace on employment applications. But typically businesses collect such data for internal purposes, such as non-state affirmative action programs, after job prospects are hired, said Robert Lazo, a San Francisco employment lawyer.

If passed, the initiative would ban public agencies from collecting racial data even after a hire, which could hurt attempts to diversify the workplace.

Opponents say the referendum would erase information from vital statistics and cripple efforts by researchers to collect data that help them understand why certain minorities suffer more from illnesses such as heart disease, prostate cancer and AIDS, as well as certain groups are more likely to become teenage parents, smoke at an early age and drop out of school.

Speakers at an American Sociological Association forum in Washington denounced the proposal for that reason. Officials at health organizations such as Kaiser Permanente and the California Medical Association have joined civil rights activists of all backgrounds to fight it.

Opponents said they suspect that Connerly's motives go beyond colorblindness. In a recent telephone interview, he said he was tired of seeing Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants characterize themselves as underprivileged minorities.

"In California, this is no longer about race," Connerly said. "It's about ethnicity, and those of Mexican descent who will soon be a majority.

"They don't want to see those categories go," he said. "They want to see affirmative action policies remain so they can take advantage of them. They want to claim minority status when, in fact, they will soon be a majority in California. They want to hide behind the term 'Hispanic' and 'people of color,' but most of them check the 'white' box [on the census form] anyway."

Hispanics in the United States, who recently overtook black Americans as the nation's largest minority ethnic group, are mostly concentrated in California, according to a report by census officials. Some demographers, citing projections based on 2000 Census figures, estimate that Hispanics will become a majority in California before 2030. Hispanics account for a majority of births in the state.

"For Ward Connerly to explicitly state that one of the purposes behind the initiative is to deal with Mexican Americans trying to take part in affirmative action is incredible," said Maria Blanco, national senior counsel for the Los Angeles-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "I find it amazing, given that he wrapped this around colorblindness, a common goal that everybody has."

Raul Yzaguirre, president and chief executive of the National Council of La Raza in Washington, said Connerly's statement that Hispanics "check the 'white' box anyway" shows that he doesn't understand how Hispanics, who can be of any race, view themselves.

In the 2000 Census, nearly half of Hispanics identified themselves as "other," while a nearly equal number identified themselves as white. Only 2 percent identified themselves as black, although nations such as the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Colombia and Brazil teem with residents North Americans would identify as black.

"The concept of race is different in Hispanic society than American society," Yzaguirre said. "We are confused by black and white. In some ways, it's irrelevant how we identify ourselves. The bigots who discriminate don't care what we call ourselves. They perceive us as being a minority whether you perceive yourself as a minority or not."

Race in California goes well beyond white, black and Hispanic. About 140 languages are spoken in the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to school records. In past years, voters have approved two ballot initiatives that dealt with immigration and affirmative action issues.

Proposition 187, passed in 1994, prevented undocumented immigrants from receiving state benefits and public services in California. Proposition 209, passed in 1996, prohibits the state from granting preferential treatment to individuals and groups on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, education and contracting.

Connerly sponsored Proposition 209. The current ballot initiative, formally known as CRECNO, for Classifying by Race, Ethnicity, Color and National Origin, was dubbed "Son of 209" by state multiculturalists. Connerly is unfazed.

"What I foresee happening in this state is this competition for General Assembly districts and government jobs between those of African American descent and Hispanics," he said. "It will become very intense."

Connerly, who is black, said that African Americans "are joining the Hispanic caucus, the caucus of people of color. I don't think they've thought this through." He said his earlier fight against affirmative action was not helping his current cause. "Anything I say now, they tune it out, to their discredit, I believe," he said.

State NAACP President Alice Huffman said Connerly was no friend of black people or any other minority. "It's disingenuous to do away with the gains of affirmative action, because it's helping other underserved groups," Huffman said. ". . . There's nothing wrong with trying to be served by government if you feel you've been left out of the system."

The deeper threat posed by CRECNO is the threat to data collection, she said. If the initiative passes -- and some polls say voters favor it 3 to 2 -- researchers say it could have the unintended effect of debilitating efforts to study California's demographic makeup.

"While everybody admires the goal of trying to be more colorblind, there are some important and legitimate uses the state has for gathering racial information," said Larry Grisolano, a consultant for the Coalition for an Informed California, which opposes the initiative.

Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said it seemed to have merit.

"There's a whole industry that has an interest in defining race in a patriotic way . . . because it serves their purpose," Stein said. "The political definition of race is purely subjective, and to the extent that these categories are deployed by certain groups is unfair to other groups that had a legacy of slavery."