[News-releases] NOW Blasts White House Opposition to U. MichiganPolicy, Points Out Bush Benefitted From Affirmative Action

NOW Press Office
202-628-8669 Rebecca Farmer, x 116
202-785-8576 (fax) 

NOW Blasts White House Opposition to U. Michigan Policy, Points Out Bush
Benefitted From Affirmative Action

January 17, 2003

"After thirty years of progress in the inclusion of people of color into
higher
education and other institutions, the White House is advocating a huge leap
backward," said National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kim Gandy. The
White House filed a brief with the Supreme Court on January 16 opposing the
University of Michigan's affirmative action policy, which will be argued in
early April. 

"The Administration's response was appalling on many levels," Gandy said.
"Consider the comments of an unnamed White House official who told the
Washington Post that 'we need to try, if at all possible, to promote the
broadest amount of diversity without taking race into account.' Is he kidding?
A commitment to diversity in everything except race? That's Orwellian
doublespeak." 

"There has always been affirmative action?but for many years it operated to
exclude women and people of color. Consider one example," said Gandy,
"There is
little doubt that George W. Bush's grades were lower than those of hundreds of
students who were rejected by Yale the same year Bush was welcomed there." 

"Yes, George W. Bush was a beneficiary of one kind of affirmative action?the
kind that favored the sons of (overwhelmingly white) Yale graduates. Yet there
has been no White House denunciation of the 'extra points' universities still
give to children of big donors or former graduates?only a condemnation of
efforts to offset that by considering race and ethnic background. Those
diversity factors contribute much more to the breadth and depth of academic
life, and are more deserving of affirmative consideration, than the wealth and
connections that currently receive extra credit." 

"The White House has done a complete 180 since the Trent Lott fiasco," Gandy
said. "On December 16, Lott said 'I'm for affirmative action,' in an interview
with BET. Now it's time for Lott and Frist, those born-again civil rights
supporters, to step up to the plate in support of expanding opportunities. 

"The outcome of the U. Michigan affirmative action case will determine whether
we move toward opportunities for all or backtrack toward resegregation," Gandy
said. "Despite the Bush Administration's inaccurate claims, the University of
Michigan policies are not racial quotas. They open doors and provide
opportunities for learning and cultural exchange that benefit students of all
races." 

"It's too late to tell Bush to butt out of this case, so instead I'll remind
him that the Supreme Court justices don't work for him," Gandy said. "On the
day of the oral arguments in the University of Michigan cases, feminists will
march with other civil rights supporters to protect affirmative action?and to
continue opening doors for all those who have been excluded from the full
bounty of this country. 

###