The enemies of affirmative action programs are not just slick conservatives and vulgar racists, but also greasy liberals, argues Gerald Horne. And their efforts to dismantle such programs began as soon as they were enacted.
The recent decision by the US Supreme Court to strike down “race-conscious” admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina represents but one victory by the organized right in their long standing battle for the maintenance and extension of whitesupremacy in the United States. In fact, as historian Gerald Horne demonstrates in a 1980 article titled “Who Are the Enemies of Affirmative Action,” the efforts by the right wing to dismantle such programs emerged just as soon as such programs were enacted — targeted by well-funded and well-staffed legal organizations like the Pacific Legal Foundation and the National Legal Center for the Public Interest, an organization that merged with the American Enterprise Institute in 2007. Today, such organizations have their equivalent in Students for Fair Admission, the anti-affirmative organization formed by right wing activist Edward Blum that successfully challenged Harvard and UNC.
Yet for Horne, while the enemies of affirmative action are slick conservative activists on one hand, and the vulgar racist like the Ku Klux Klan on the other, there is a third party we should be concerned with: those liberals, so-called progressives, and Democrats who publicly pander to Black concerns when running for office, while abandoning Black people when elected.
Horne’s political solution? While recognizing the extremely difficult and reactionary political and ideological climate of the early days of the Reagan years, Horne calls for a number of things. Pressure from progressive activist organizations such as the Affirmative Action Coordinating Center, of which he was a Director-Counsel and who filed a series of Amicus Briefs in support of affirmative action cases, including Steelworkers v. Weber (1979). Letter writing, demonstrating, and “plain, old political organizing.” And above all, Horne argued that a position of “political independence” was needed – one that could repel conservative bullying and liberal trickery while dismissing the false hopes and empty promises of both Democrats and Republicans.
Horne’s essay, reprinted below, is as relevant in 1980 as it is now. The enemies of affirmative action, and of Black progress and liberation, are on both sides of the U.S. duopoly. They are marching. When do we strike?
Who Are the Enemies of Affirmative Action?
Gerald Horne
The question of “who are the enemies of affirmative action is” not as easy to answer as it may appear at first glance.
Of course, there is the Ku Klux Klan (and those with a “Klan mentality”) whose recent resurgence is directly attributable to their jabbering about “reverse discrimination” allegedly being perpetrated against white males.
Then there are the subtle opponents, whose public image may not be as odious as the Ku Klux Klan but whose actions on minority hiring are equally devastating. List here the politicians, mostly Democrats, who are elected with Black votes because of soothing promises but who then forget who we are once they reach office. They know who they are and if you don’t know now you better find out before November 1980.
But the list does not end there. Those who fight the battle for affirmative action daily have become acquainted with another pernicious opponent and that is the so-called “public interest” foundation of the “new right.”
Take the Pacific Legal Foundation for example. This organization, heavily bankrolled by the Fluor Corporation of Southern California among others, has been the principal opponent of the 1977 Public Works Employment Act, which set aside 10% of government contracts for minority contractors.
Pacific Legal Foundation was formed in 1973 in California to find ways to cut-back on welfare. Today it is a $2 million-a-year firm with a staff of 45, half of them lawyers. Their main office is in Sacramento but they also have offices in Washington, D.C., Seattle and San Diego. Apparently, business is blooming since they plan to set up more offices in Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia and Miami. A measure of their success is that state governments in Michigan and Illinois have consulted with PLF about cutting back on welfare.
Unfortunately, PLF is not the sole organization of its kind. There is the Great Plains Legal Foundation in Kansas City and the Southwestern Legal Foundation in New York. IN Denver, there is the Mountain States Legal Foundation. In Chicago, there is the Mid-Atlantic Legal Foundation. In Washington, D.C. there is the Capital Legal Foundation. ANd also in Washington there is the inappropriately named National Legal Center for the Public Interest.
To give you an idea of what affirmative action advocates are up against, it is only necessary to look at the funding for these “new right” legal organizations. NLCPI, for example, is funded by over 330 corporations, including such giants as Texaco, Gulf, Exxon and Mobil. Attorneys at organizations like the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the Affirmative Action Coordinating Center, the Center for Constitutional Rights and other legal organizations defending the interests of the Black and poor, limp along at salaries that a trappist monk would find difficult to live on. Yet officials at NCLPI are compensated at rates of $50,000 per year and above. [Ed. note: Adjusted for inflation, $50,000 per year in 1980 is close to $200,000 today].
But as formidable as these opponents may seem, there is no reason to despair. First, it must be recognized that the political climate of today provides fertile soil for “new right” victories. But just as demonstrating, letter-writing and plain, old political organizing helped us win Weber, this same formula can be used for our future battles.
Further, a little political sophistication and a search for what Rev. Ben Chavis has called an “alternative” to the Republicans and Democrats is in order. Rev. Chavis and others have pointed out that the funders of these “New right” organizations often fund the same candidates we vote for–and he who pays the piper plays the tune.
Political independence, which would alter the political climate, is the foremost guarantee for the defeat of the “new right” and the continued vitality of affirmative action.
Gerald Horne, “Who Are the Enemies of Affirmative Action?,” Call and Post, March 15, 1980.
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