After Affirmative Action

Life under an executive order suggests the future of afirmative action in a post-CCRI California.

Michael W. Lynch from the November 1996 issue

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Some experts, however, feel that quantifying goals by race, ethnicity, and gender is preferential and unconstitutional. Indeed, Wilson, having accomplished all he could by executive action, is suing the state, arguing that the statutes that require goals and timetables violate the U.S. Constitution. "The goal is by definition discrimination based on race and gender," states Robert Corey, an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation who is litigating the governor's case. "Its very existence gives managers license to discriminate against innocent people based on the immutable characteristics of race and gender."

There is often a disconnect between official policies, especially those set by overseeing agencies, and how things actually work in practice. Indeed, a memo titled "Revision to Fiscal Year 1995-96 Affirmative Action Goals and Timetables," from the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, supports Corey's contention and indicates that civil service hiring may not be as race- and gender-blind as those in power would have us believe. In this memo dated August 15, 1995, Lisa Fien, the department's equal employment opportunity officer, wrote: "Eight vacancies are anticipated to be filled in the Staff Services Occupational Grouping [the entry level civil service position for college graduates]. Four (4) vacancies will be filled by whites; four (4) filled by men." Note that these are not only quotas, they are quotas set for whites and men, in which a white man can be a "twofer" hire, a bonus formerly reserved for minority women. Nevertheless, such quotas are supposed to be a thing of the distant past.

While the personnel board is not taking a position on Wilson's case, Edwards defends the use of goals and timetables as a way to let department heads know what is going on in their work force. "Our responsibility is to ensure that employment practices are fair to all groups," says Edwards. "Unless you monitor your employment practices with statistical tools, to see that equal employment opportunity is a reality, it may not be." Edwards also points out that at least under the new process, it is the affirmative action office, not the hiring managers, that tracks the goals and timetables.

This final debate will be resolved only in court. But the state's affirmative action program has already been retooled from what had degenerated into an often irrational ethnic spoils system. Insofar as President Clinton and other affirmative action advocates claim to support only those programs that focus on equality of opportunity, as opposed to a quota- based equality of result, then they should lend their support to the CCRI. After all, it is only through such efforts that affirmative action has ever been mended.