Ward Connerly, University of California regent and chair of an
anti-affirmative action interest group, says he will not apologize
for saying segregationists can believe in racial equality.
The University of California Students Association voted
unanimously last week to seek Connerly’s apology for
statements made on Dec. 13 while appearing on CNN’s
“Wolf Blitzer Reports.” Commenting on the controversy
surrounding former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Connerly said
segregationists are not always racists.
A transcript of the program quotes Connerly as saying “One
can believe in segregation and believe in the equality of races, so
it doesn’t necessarily make it racist, but I think it’s
certainly a poor direction for this nation to have pursued, namely,
segregation.”
Connerly said he does not think Lott is racist, but that he
should resign as majority leader. In early Dec. Lott said the
nation would have been better off if then-segregationist Strom
Thurmond had been elected president in 1948. Lott stepped down on
Dec. 20.
Though UCSA members did not follow through on plans to confront
Connerly during public comment period at last week’s regents
meeting in San Francisco, the group will not let the issue
drop.
UCSA board member Mo Kashmiri said Connerly’s refusal to
apologize will not settle the matter.
“Personally, I’m outraged and it only makes me want
to pursue this further,” he said.
UCSA will decide plans for future steps in February, though it
is possible for action to be taken earlier, Kashmiri said.
In addition to students, two state legislators have also
registered their disapproval of Connerly’s remarks. In a
letter to the UC Board of Regents submitted Jan. 17, Assemblyman
Dario Frommer, D-Glendale, and Senator Don Perata, D-Oakland, urge
the board to formally censure Connerly, while also making an
intellectual argument against Connerly’s statement.
“Segregation has always been a manifestation of racism and
the two cannot be divided,” they write.
In the letter, the legislators also take offense to a second
statement made last week when Connerly used strong language
dismissing the UCSA’s call for an apology.
A Bay Area newspaper quoted Connerly as saying “I’m
not apologizing; tell them to go to hell.”
“To have a UC regent say that is unacceptable,”
Kashmiri said.
During a telephone interview Tuesday, Connerly reaffirmed that
he will not apologize for his remarks on segregation.
Elaborating on his comments, he said people who choose not to
associate with members of other races should not be condemned as
racists.
“Segregation in my view is dumb. Is everyone who
self-segregates a racist? No,” he said.
He also said there is no place for segregation in law.
“I believe that racial segregation by the government is
immoral and unconstitutional,” he said.
Since becoming a regent in 1993, Connerly has enmeshed himself
in controversies surrounding race relations. He pushed for SP-1 and
-2 in 1995, which eliminated the use of affirmative action at the
UC, but which were repealed in 2001. In 1996, he led a successful
campaign for Proposition 209, a ballot measure which banned
affirmative action in California.