Participants are not supposed to give details of these meetings, but I can tell you in general terms about our stimulating meeting. One presentation concerned the way the liberals use the code name of “Diversity” to preserve preferential treatment in “affirmative action,” led by Peter Wood of Boston University. (click here for a review of Wood’s new book)

A counsel for the plaintiff in the University of Michigan cases was there, and we considered, among other things, whether the Bush Administration was really in favor of overturning Justice Powell’s doctrine of the legal use of preferences in higher education for the purpose of achieving “diversity.”

Friends of the Declaration Foundation probably know that I have pessimistic views on this matter, which I expressed at the meeting. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down its ruling in the Michigan cases by the end of June 2003. I expect this to be – at best – a tactical victory, with a long war ahead of us, and no help from the GOP. We shall see.

We spent much time on Ward Connerly’s Racial Privacy Initiative, which has qualified for the ballot in California. This initiative would forbid the state of California from asking citizens about their race. We discussed recent scientific evidence that human beings may not be “hard wired” to notice and be influenced by noticing a person’s race. We also heard a powerful presentation from Journalist and researcher Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute. Heather explained how junk social science, including the abuse of data on race, is used to trump up charges of “racial profiling,” to the detriment of local communities, especially those with many poor people. RPI would undermine this bad policy by blocking the collection of data needed to carry it out.

Finally, former Los Angeles NOW Chairwoman Tammy Bruce gave us an inside account of the madness of the left, and told us to expect a vicious fight over Connerly’s initiative, since self-definition as “victim” is essential to modern feminist, racialist, and gay rights groups. Tammy is a fascinating character, by the way. She’s still not pro-life – not by a long shot – but she sure sees the madness lurking in parts of the pro-abortion movement.

For Life and Liberty!

Dr. Richard Ferrier
President, Declaration Foundation