Rose Bird vs Multi-Ethnic Diversity/IRS racial quotas

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Wonder what the lefty-racists will say about this...

Sunday, July 6, 1997 . Page B 8
San Francisco Examiner     

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
 

Rose Elizabeth Bird's ignorant and poorly reasoned column ( "A brutal
education legacy," June 29) in which she identified the end of affirmative
action at the University of California with apartheid is an example of why
race-based policies have become so bankrupt among the citizens of California.


Apartheid classified individuals strictly according to race and ignored
their individual abilities. Blacks in South Africa could not go to white
universities regardless of their intellectual accomplishments. Affirmative
action classified individuals according to race and their individual
accomplishments. The end of affirmative action means that individuals will
be assessed in terms of their individual accomplishments. It is as far away
from apartheid as a policy could possibly be. 

Moreover, the end of affirmative action will not result in ethnically
homogeneous campuses at the University of California. The student population
in this state is astonishingly diverse. There are large numbers of men and
women whose forebears came from all over Europe, Africa, Latin America and
Asia. 

What the end of affirmative action will do is to change the mix. There will
be more individuals of Chinese, Japanese, Sri Lankan, Indian, Pakistani and
Russian descent, and fewer individuals of African and Latin American descent.

Bird might not like this new mix, but the astonishing ethnic diversity of
California universities will not end as a result of the termination of
affirmative action - only race-based discrimination will. 

Stephen D. Krasner 
Department of Political Science 
Stanford University 



Rose Bird's "disgraceful, social do-gooding, liberal attack'

Anent Rose Elizabeth Bird's disgraceful - albeit typically social do-gooding
liberal - attack upon Gov. Wilson and UC Regent Ward Connerly for taking us
from "affirmative action to California-style apartheid" : 

The opinions, political philosophy and judicial activism of former
California Chief Justice Bird were unequivocably repudiated by the voters of
California when she and two other like-thinking liberal justices were
deservedly removed from the court. Bird's words today - as were her
pronouncements from the bench of yesteryear - would be laughable were they
not so dangerous. 

Thomas M. Edwards 
San Francisco 

====================================================


US NEWS & WORLD REPORT

UPDATE  July, 1997

The IRS loses a round

SOON AFTER PRESIDENT CLINTON announced his "mend it, don't end it" policy on
affirmative action, U.S. News reported ("Between the Idea and the Reality,"
July 31, 1995) on race-and-employment skirmishes within the federal
bureaucracy. In one prominent example, critics accused the Internal Revenue
Service of maintaining virtual quotas in its hiring practices. In the past
two years, the IRS has lost several cases involving charges of "reverse
discrimination" that were brought by white males. Two of the cases involved
accusations by IRS employees who charged that the agency had retaliated
against them for filing or supporting reverse-bias claims. Federal District
Court Judge Donald E. Walter in Shreveport, La., recently declared the IRS's
policy on racial and gender diversity unconstitutional, saying that it
amounted to a "quota, guarantee, or set-aside." The judge issued his ruling
in a suit brought by four white males that is set for trial next month. The
case may be settled, but the IRS will be under pressure to overhaul its
policy, which may be challenged in a class-action suit.--Ted Gest

Copyright U.S. News & World Report, Inc.