Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences

by Ward Connerly

Ward Connerly first burst onto the American scene 1995 as the University of California Regent who had forced the largest public university in the country to become color-blind in its admissions policies. Connerly led the 1996 campaign to pass California's Proposition 209. In 1998, he spearheaded a similar successful anti-discrimination measure in Washington. Creating Equal chronicles Connerly's unique friendship with California governor Pete Wilson, as well as his encounters with figures like Bill Clinton and Al Gore, mogul Rupert Murdoch, Gen. Colin Powell, and Jesse Jackson. But above all, this book tells about how one man's willingness to break ranks created a movement whose end is not yet in sight.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Memoir, Biography

286 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2000

Reviews

[Daniel Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ward Connerly is a crusader, but a crusader who has picked the a battle that matters.

A black man born in the south but raised in the West, Connerly becomes a unique figure in the fight for equal rights against racial preferences. Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences, part autobiography and part political memoir, is his telling of the events leading up to and surrounding that fight. It is a quick and accessible read, and Connerly proves to be an able storyteller, quick to turn a phrase and propound his opinion with anecdotes and colorful observations in the moment. Of the many of observations that intersperse Connerly's narrative, he often seems intent on using them to demonstrate the hypocrisy and duplicity of his opponents, especially as it regards race and preferential treatment.

Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences is a quick and accessible read. Connerly proves to be an able storyteller, quick to turn a phrase and propound his opinion with anecdotes and colorful observations in the moment. Of the many of observations that intersperses Connerly’s narrative, he often seems intent on using them to demonstrate the hypocrisy and duplicity of his opponents, especially as it regards race and preferential treatment.

To be clear, I doubt that Creating Equal will persuade you to change your ideological biases, unless, perhaps, you are either one of those rare individuals that sits on the fence or a part of the legion of the majority that tends to be uninformed on the racial preferences. For myself, I opened the book predisposed to support the American creed of equality before the law and found in Connerly's words support and reason for that belief. Connerly's logic is simple and easy to follow: while Affirmative Action was intended to correct racial injustice in American political institutions, the unintended consequence was to insert preferences against certain racial groups (for example, those of Hispanic or Asian origin) in favor of less qualified individuals who happen to belong to particular racial groups. Further, by institutionalizing such preferences in, for example, the higher education system of states like California, we are not only supporting inequality for all Americans, but racially discriminating against many. It's almost an afterthought for Connerly that such preferences tend to hurt those very racial groups that they favor more than they help.

Not surprisingly, given that Connerly is black himself and took a leading role in leading the fight to remove racial preferences, first from the California Board of Regents and later in state by state initiatives, some of the most vociferous critiques against equality came from blacks who viewed Connerly as a traitor. Connerly seemed to take relish reciting anecdotes about racial slurs twisted against him by other black. The irony never escapes him.

Connerly's mission is one born of logic and reasoning, and he never hesitates to point out that even when equality lost the fight in a state (as in Florida, which he called a death "by a thousand cuts,"), voters don't hesitate to support him when the plain language is put before them. His targets for critiques aren't limited to Democrats or racial preferences' supporters--both George and Jeb Bush (as well as Karl Rove) receive their share of his ire for their unwillingness to man up for equality in their states when the politics of their future did not support it.

Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences is short, written with Connerly's flare for the dramatic, and should be a valuable addition in the history of American political thought. What it lacks in-depth, statistics, and balance it more than makes up with a narrative that persuasively describes why all Americans should care about equality. America was founded on the idea that all men and women should be treated equal before the law. If there are failings among certain groups--especially due to race--the changes need to be made where effects can be felt: in our public schools. Setting quotas that consider race, however, does not and will not assist in bringing more disadvantaged individuals out of poverty. Rather, it just prevents Americans as a whole from experiencing equal opportunity.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I first saw Ward Connerly when he appeared on The View as a guest. I found his ideas interesting and wanted to hear more, so I purchased this book.

Connerly makes some thought provoking points, but the delivery is inconsistent and lacking of structure. I found the read tiresome. He spends too much time puffing his feathers and imputing others, often making a point to mention the race or ethnicity of people he encountered. This was distracting not to mention counterproductive to otherwise well thought-out ideas. After a couple chapters of this I felt like saying I get it you've been discriminated against by everyone: black, white, Native American, can we move on to the solution?

I really wanted to like this book. I have given up finishing it after 3 attempts to read further and no discernable change. I can't help but wonder how it would have been if Connerly had simply focused on his ideas and spent less time on personal grievances and itemizing atta boys. A shame, Connerly is ahead of his time in many ways.

[Feisty Harriet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read an excerpt from this book years ago for a college class, and wish I’d read the rest of the book then instead of waiting. Connerly was a key supporter of ending affirmative action in California, and then Washington and Florida culminating in a nation-wide end of the policy which had good intentions but was quickly becoming a form of discrimination to lower income Whites and high performing Asians. Connerly withstood mountains of criticism and threats from individuals calling him an “Uncle Tom,” an “Oreo” and a traitor to his race. However, Connerly was simply exposing some extreme racism that was rooted in employment, civil contracting, and university admissions and trying to correct these prejudices to eliminate a preference system and impose one of outreach for underserved communities to encourage higher performance in K-12 and college readiness and success. I found myself underlining many of his words that rang true for racial equality in the 1990′s as being particularly poignant at the current campaign for equal rights for all regardless of sexual preference. Recommended.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting book, especially for someone who grew up in the California public school system and was in high school when much of the events in the book occurred. To those of you not interested in California's a) education, b) politics, or c) affirmative action in general, it won't be as interesting. Also, the book is less focused on analyzing arguments for and against affirmative action than justifying the author's position against it (in case the subtitle didn't warn you).

[Jane]

If you know me, you know that I think poverty, not race, is the issue. And yes, I know that here in America, those things are linked much of the time.
I hesitate to recommend it to anyone, because people can be intolerant of other opinions, but if you have an open mind, give it a try.

[Thinker 3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I already knew much of what Ward wrote about in this book. It is quite inspiring because of the struggle that he went through to get race preferences in California banned.

[Mark Holencik · Rating 5 out of 5]

War's story of standing up and fighting for his beliefs about advancing the african american . The hardest part of staying your course is the people you are helping are your biggest enemies.