Struggle continues for affirmative action

A massive turnout in support of affirmative action at a Dec. 19 hearing surprised the Wisconsin state senator, Glenn Grothman, who had called the meeting to attack the progressive policy. Grothman is chairman of the Wisconsin Legislative Council’s Special Committee on Affirmative Action Policies.

Pro-affirmative action supporters packed the chamber, filled available seating, sat on the floor and overflowed into the hallways and stairways outside the room.

“I’ve never been to a committee meeting where we’ve had so many people,” said Grothman, who had invited anti-affirmative action reactionary Ward Connerly to address the hearing at the State Capitol in Madison.

Connerly, of the purposefully misnamed American Civil Rights Institute, is bankrolled by neo-conservative organizations such as the Milwaukee-based Bradley and Olin Foundations (mediatransparency.org).

Grothman, Connerly and the forces behind them launched an attack on all state-wide Wisconsin affirmative action laws, policies and regulations following a 2005 decision by University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly that strengthened student diversity.

Reilly convened an admissions advisory group in an effort to achieve a UW system-wide student population that would reflect the population of Wisconsin. The group ultimately instructed all UW campuses to model their admissions policies after that of UW-Madison.

The UW-Madison has long considered race, ethnicity and socio-economic factors as part of the admissions process, but other campuses have used a set academic formula with almost no other considerations. The UW System has over 120,000 students in 24 two- and four-year colleges and universities as well as graduate schools.

Challenge the hearing!

Before the Dec. 19 meeting, state Rep. Tamara Grigsby of Milwaukee, an African-American member of the committee, charged that the hearing was a “total farce,” and was an attempt by Grothman to constrain debate and discussion. She cited the fact that the hearing was scheduled during a busy final exams week at most UW campuses, was barely advertised to the public, and was scheduled for 6:30 p.m.—after the Capitol closed at 6 p.m., leaving only one door open to the general public for the hearing.

The hearing came on the heels of the Nov. 7 passage of a Michigan constitutional amendment barring affirmative action in public employment, public education or public contracting. That amendment followed attacks on affirmative action in other states led by Connerly and right-wing forces, including Proposition 209 in California.

After the 1996 California proposition, the number of Blacks enrolling at University of California (UC) schools shrunk, according to a study commissioned by the Institute for Justice and Journalism at UC’s Annenberg School for Communication. Black and Latin@ enrollment at the UC Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses fell by half.

In response to the Wisconsin invitation to Connerly, state Rep. Grigsby called for a mass public challenge because of the possible ramifications of dismantling affirmative action in the state.

Many answered her call and came to the hearing to make sure that what has happened in other states does not happen in Wisconsin.

Students took the lead with solid support from UW faculty and staff, community allies and progressive state politicians. Protesters arrived on buses from Kenosha, Milwaukee, Stout and Whitewater. They joined students from UW-Madison who held a rally at that university and then marched to the hearing.

“We are marching to protest the current climate of reactionary hostility towards youth and people of color. We will organize against Ward Connerly and use our efforts to maintain and strengthen Wisconsin’s long-standing support for affirmative action,” said Carlo Albano in a Dec. 19 statement from the Coalition for Diversity and Accessibility at UW-Milwaukee. Albano is a member of Asian Student Advancement at UW-Madison.

Other forces helping to organize the protest included the United Council of UW Students, UW-Madison’s Multicultural Student Center, the Wisconsin Black Student Union, AHANA Pre-Health Organization and the Associated Students of Madison.

“We’re here to make a statement about how important affirmative action still is,” said Dellareese Williams, a first-year student at UW-Whitewater, as she entered the hearing with her allies.

During the hearing state Rep. Grigsby and many more vigorously challenged Connerly, Grothman and other anti-affirmative action opponents.

Grigsby outlined numerous social indicators, rooted in racist institutional segregation, that point to the need for affirmative action, including higher rates of poverty, incarceration and infant mortality for Blacks and other people of color.

“We have been deemed the Mississippi of the north, based on our horrible disparities. I think it is just silly to imply that race doesn’t matter when it clearly is a factor in everything,” said Grigsby.

African-American state Sen. Lena Taylor of Milwaukee challenged Connerly as well. Taylor said she sees affirmative action “as liberation” for people of color.

The fight continues

The historic battle to win, consolidate and further affirmative action in Wisconsin is a decades-long struggle replete with numerous sacrifices by many, often the most oppressed, including students of color, particularly those from Milwaukee, a city with semi-apartheid conditions for people of color.

They have no intention of backing down, says Hannah Tien Buck, a UW-Madison student and Dec. 19 protest organizer: “Those who came to this ‘Special Committee on Affirmative Action’ meeting were there to show Ward Connerly, [regent] Fred Mohs, Glenn Grothman and other members of this committee that as long as they continue to debate this issue, we will be there, and we will continue to follow closely.”

In a related supportive action, the UW-Milwaukee Faculty Senate recently voted to continue the consideration of race and ethnicity as factors in admission.