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Lessons from My Uncle James: Beyond Skin Color to the Content of Our Character
Fiercely committed to the ideal of a color-blind America, Ward Connerly has successfully campaigned to ban racial preferences in state institutions in California, Washington and Michigan. Yet, in Lessons from Uncle James, Connerly argues that even after we move beyond the color of our skin, we must still address the content of our character. With this Connerly extols the traditional virtues of personal accountability as a ballast to race industry's culture of victimhood.
350 pages, Hardcover
First published June 25, 2008
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June 15, 2024
THE PROPOSITION 209 ADVOCATE LOOKS BACK TO HIS UPBRINGING
Wardell (‘Ward’) Anthony Connerly (born 1939) is a businessman, and former University of California Regent (1993–2005). He is best known for his support of California’s Proposition 209, which (after being approved by voters in November 1996) prohibited race- and gender-based preferences in state hiring, contracting and state university admissions.
He wrote in the Foreword to this 2008 book, “After my mother died while I was still a child, I became the responsibility of the maternal grandmother… who sent me to live for a period with one of her daughters, Bertha, and Aunt Bert’s husband, James Louis… the lessons passed on to me by Uncle James have, I believe, served me well… Because many of the lessons taught to me by Uncle James have been crucial to my campaign against race, gender and ethnic preferences, I have drawn here on my autobiography, ‘Creating Equal.’”
He recalls, “I was five years old when I went to live with Uncle James and Aunt Bert… I had no idea what to expect, no certainty about what kind of ‘home’ I’d find with him. When I came into James’ custody, moreover, I wasn’t much of a bargain---an awkward and uncertain boy, burdened by a tangled family background that was filled with death and abandonment, missing persons and unexplained absences, all of the played out against the sinister backdrop of the segregated South.” (Pg. 2) He muses of his father’s death, “He had washed his hands of me long since… [But] I didn’t feel particularly unrequited by the lack of any kind of bond between us because I actually had a father during all those years---my Uncle James.” (Pg. 6) He adds, “In my time of need, the black family functioned very well indeed. That it no longer does so with predictability for others in situations similar to the one I experienced is a tragedy that ought to concern us all.” (Pg. 9)
He notes, “James made it clear from the day I arrived that I was valued, and, even more importantly, that I would be protected for the first time in my life. I knew… that James had taken responsibility for me and would never let anything bad happen… There were no contingencies to my membership in his household, no sense that he was doing me a favor… James never pretended that I was not another man’s son, but he made it clear from the beginning that I was part of HIS family.” (Pg. 12)
He observes, “Uncle James’ attitude toward hard work is probably responsible for the fact that I don’t believe in the concept of ‘retirement.’ In my view, as long as you are healthy, no matter how many years you have lived, you should try to be productive in your society. For me, this means going into the office or writing a column or doing something to stay active.” (Pg. 20)
He acknowledges, “[Uncle James] may not have understood all the intricacies of Proposition 209, but he was clear on the core issues because they were also at the core of this life: the importance of earning respect and not taking handouts… It made his blood boil when he heard that some black leaders were calling me a ‘race traitor’ and an ‘Uncle Tom.’” (Pg. 24)
He points out, “James wouldn’t buy any of the trendy defenses that were offered, primarily by white liberals, to … explain AWAY---the behavior of the new black predators… James had a word for [such explanations]: ‘bulls__t.’ To him, the black gangsters who had arrived on the scene to prey upon the old, the sick and the weak in our community were simply ‘bad men.’ And those who apologized for them in any way were definitely part of the problem rather than part of the solution.” (Pg. 31-32)
Living with his mother, in a very poor financial situation, he recalls, “Mom was not yet sixty-five and did not quality for Social Security, but at fourteen I was still young enough to quality for welfare. So I was the one who would actually have to sign up for help… I qualified for welfare, and for a little over a year we received a monthly payment of $65. This took care of Mom’s $35 house payment and left just enough for us to buy food and other necessities… I hated these visits more than I can describe. When they were scheduled, I always tried to figure out an excuse to be somewhere else…. I usually sat there silently staring at the floor during the social worker’s interrogation, hating Mom’s codependent participation in the bureaucratic routine and sullenly answering questions only when it was impossible not to… With a teenager’s impetuous self-righteousness, I suddenly jumped up in the middle of the droning discussion and said that I wouldn’t accept another public assistance check. Ever!... Before they could say anything, I stormed out of the house. I look back on this as the day that I finally became a [Man].” (Pg. 45-46)
He comments, “James was downcast when … churches in our community began to lose their influence to the value-free secularization that granted force after the 1960s… religion was unable any longer to play a central role in helping kids learn how to navigate a civilized society. James was especially appalled by the growing problem of single teenage mothers in the black community… He associated this development with the proliferation of aimless young men… James knew something was terribly wrong because such young people were beyond the power of the church and the community it represented to mold them into respectable members of society.” (Pg. 53)
He recounts, “In the spring of 2007, I was the guest lecturer at a community forum sponsored by … a ‘historically black college’… In many of these campus appearances, protesters drowned me out before I could get out a single sentence. I was always less bothered by the hostility of the radical students who had contempt for my free speech, than by my sadness that the kids in the audience who wanted to support my position were also intimidated into silence. And I was bothered too by the fact that … the college administrators … stood by impassively and let the chaos happen. To them, the university was… but an echo chamber for politically correct ideas.” (Pg. 76)
He explains, “When I first got involved in this issue at the University of California over fourteen years ago, I thought that it was never justifiable, in any circumstances, to use skin color as a criterion for granting advantages in the public square… [But] I saw that things would not have turned around so quickly for blacks and with relatively little social turbulence had there not bene some degree of color-consciousness… I have never wavered in my belief that it is always a mistake to force government agencies to look at race and put a discriminatory thumb on the social scale. Yet I have also understood that race-consciousness in the crucial period of the 1960s may have kept us from far more damaging social upheaval than we actually experienced. The administrative remedy should have been limited to blacks, with sunset provisions built in … These conditions should have been enacted by Congress…” (Pg. 80-81)
He concludes, “We live in a different time from the one in which James Louis lived. In his era it was unacceptable for a ‘mane’ [man] to compulsively remind those close to him how much he loved them. But he put food on the table and… taught me how to look after myself… I sometimes wonder if the same thing can be said of today's sensitive males who often and easily express their love but then use it as the squid’s in, to disappear when called to demonstrate real commitment.” (Pg. 86) He adds, “For James Louis, the Promised Land was here and now---being able to conduct his life without interference; relying on government to discharge its responsibilities but not feeling governed during his waking hours; knowing that he was a stakeholder in the most generous and humane country in the world.” (Pg. 90)
This book will be of keen interest to those conservatives interested in race and ethnic issues.
Wardell (‘Ward’) Anthony Connerly (born 1939) is a businessman, and former University of California Regent (1993–2005). He is best known for his support of California’s Proposition 209, which (after being approved by voters in November 1996) prohibited race- and gender-based preferences in state hiring, contracting and state university admissions.
He wrote in the Foreword to this 2008 book, “After my mother died while I was still a child, I became the responsibility of the maternal grandmother… who sent me to live for a period with one of her daughters, Bertha, and Aunt Bert’s husband, James Louis… the lessons passed on to me by Uncle James have, I believe, served me well… Because many of the lessons taught to me by Uncle James have been crucial to my campaign against race, gender and ethnic preferences, I have drawn here on my autobiography, ‘Creating Equal.’”
He recalls, “I was five years old when I went to live with Uncle James and Aunt Bert… I had no idea what to expect, no certainty about what kind of ‘home’ I’d find with him. When I came into James’ custody, moreover, I wasn’t much of a bargain---an awkward and uncertain boy, burdened by a tangled family background that was filled with death and abandonment, missing persons and unexplained absences, all of the played out against the sinister backdrop of the segregated South.” (Pg. 2) He muses of his father’s death, “He had washed his hands of me long since… [But] I didn’t feel particularly unrequited by the lack of any kind of bond between us because I actually had a father during all those years---my Uncle James.” (Pg. 6) He adds, “In my time of need, the black family functioned very well indeed. That it no longer does so with predictability for others in situations similar to the one I experienced is a tragedy that ought to concern us all.” (Pg. 9)
He notes, “James made it clear from the day I arrived that I was valued, and, even more importantly, that I would be protected for the first time in my life. I knew… that James had taken responsibility for me and would never let anything bad happen… There were no contingencies to my membership in his household, no sense that he was doing me a favor… James never pretended that I was not another man’s son, but he made it clear from the beginning that I was part of HIS family.” (Pg. 12)
He observes, “Uncle James’ attitude toward hard work is probably responsible for the fact that I don’t believe in the concept of ‘retirement.’ In my view, as long as you are healthy, no matter how many years you have lived, you should try to be productive in your society. For me, this means going into the office or writing a column or doing something to stay active.” (Pg. 20)
He acknowledges, “[Uncle James] may not have understood all the intricacies of Proposition 209, but he was clear on the core issues because they were also at the core of this life: the importance of earning respect and not taking handouts… It made his blood boil when he heard that some black leaders were calling me a ‘race traitor’ and an ‘Uncle Tom.’” (Pg. 24)
He points out, “James wouldn’t buy any of the trendy defenses that were offered, primarily by white liberals, to … explain AWAY---the behavior of the new black predators… James had a word for [such explanations]: ‘bulls__t.’ To him, the black gangsters who had arrived on the scene to prey upon the old, the sick and the weak in our community were simply ‘bad men.’ And those who apologized for them in any way were definitely part of the problem rather than part of the solution.” (Pg. 31-32)
Living with his mother, in a very poor financial situation, he recalls, “Mom was not yet sixty-five and did not quality for Social Security, but at fourteen I was still young enough to quality for welfare. So I was the one who would actually have to sign up for help… I qualified for welfare, and for a little over a year we received a monthly payment of $65. This took care of Mom’s $35 house payment and left just enough for us to buy food and other necessities… I hated these visits more than I can describe. When they were scheduled, I always tried to figure out an excuse to be somewhere else…. I usually sat there silently staring at the floor during the social worker’s interrogation, hating Mom’s codependent participation in the bureaucratic routine and sullenly answering questions only when it was impossible not to… With a teenager’s impetuous self-righteousness, I suddenly jumped up in the middle of the droning discussion and said that I wouldn’t accept another public assistance check. Ever!... Before they could say anything, I stormed out of the house. I look back on this as the day that I finally became a [Man].” (Pg. 45-46)
He comments, “James was downcast when … churches in our community began to lose their influence to the value-free secularization that granted force after the 1960s… religion was unable any longer to play a central role in helping kids learn how to navigate a civilized society. James was especially appalled by the growing problem of single teenage mothers in the black community… He associated this development with the proliferation of aimless young men… James knew something was terribly wrong because such young people were beyond the power of the church and the community it represented to mold them into respectable members of society.” (Pg. 53)
He recounts, “In the spring of 2007, I was the guest lecturer at a community forum sponsored by … a ‘historically black college’… In many of these campus appearances, protesters drowned me out before I could get out a single sentence. I was always less bothered by the hostility of the radical students who had contempt for my free speech, than by my sadness that the kids in the audience who wanted to support my position were also intimidated into silence. And I was bothered too by the fact that … the college administrators … stood by impassively and let the chaos happen. To them, the university was… but an echo chamber for politically correct ideas.” (Pg. 76)
He explains, “When I first got involved in this issue at the University of California over fourteen years ago, I thought that it was never justifiable, in any circumstances, to use skin color as a criterion for granting advantages in the public square… [But] I saw that things would not have turned around so quickly for blacks and with relatively little social turbulence had there not bene some degree of color-consciousness… I have never wavered in my belief that it is always a mistake to force government agencies to look at race and put a discriminatory thumb on the social scale. Yet I have also understood that race-consciousness in the crucial period of the 1960s may have kept us from far more damaging social upheaval than we actually experienced. The administrative remedy should have been limited to blacks, with sunset provisions built in … These conditions should have been enacted by Congress…” (Pg. 80-81)
He concludes, “We live in a different time from the one in which James Louis lived. In his era it was unacceptable for a ‘mane’ [man] to compulsively remind those close to him how much he loved them. But he put food on the table and… taught me how to look after myself… I sometimes wonder if the same thing can be said of today's sensitive males who often and easily express their love but then use it as the squid’s in, to disappear when called to demonstrate real commitment.” (Pg. 86) He adds, “For James Louis, the Promised Land was here and now---being able to conduct his life without interference; relying on government to discharge its responsibilities but not feeling governed during his waking hours; knowing that he was a stakeholder in the most generous and humane country in the world.” (Pg. 90)
This book will be of keen interest to those conservatives interested in race and ethnic issues.
Displaying 1 of 1 review