Back in 1969 blacks made up less than 2 percent of America’s trade unions and were excluded completely from certain trades such as elevator construction and sheet metal. Today, in the Chicago area, minority union membership has increased to more than 30 percent, with representation in all craft categories.
But now, all across America, we seem to be going backwards. In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush has advanced a “One Florida” initiative–a scheme that goes as follows: eliminate race and gender considerations in college admissions and end all minority and female contractor utilization requirements on state contracts.
Apropos education, Bush proposes to guarantee the top 20 percent of each high school graduating class admission to Florida’s state universities. This leaves it to Florida’s racially segregated and underfunded public schools to prepare African-American and Hispanic students to swim rather than sink on campus. One critic noted that some Florida schools don’t even have “enough chalk.” Another likened Bush’s “Talented 20” proposal to “vaporware,” as in untried software using incomplete technology.
Yet, in an uncharacteristic rush to judgment, a Tribune editorial called the Florida plan “a smart play by the other Gov. Bush.” Even more perplexing was columnist Clarence Page’s take, that “for those who seek a sane, sensible way out of the nation’s most vexing and volatile racial dilemma, the Bush plan offers welcome remedies.”
Happily, many fair-minded people in Florida have accurately identified the enemy and are not content to be spectator-victims, as has been the case in other cities. They are supported by the National Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary and are organizing under the banner of “Stop the Attack on the Gains of the Civil Rights Movement.” They have called for picketing of the Associated General Contractors of Florida, declaring that white-owned general contractors in league with Jeb Bush must be “called out by name.”
As if this were not enough, we see the revival of the infamous Adarand case in which a white Colorado contractor convinced the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995 that he had been discriminated against by that state’s minority set-aside program.
Still dissatisfied, Adarand has recently been “born again” and gotten certified as a DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise). Now Randy Pech, the principal of Adarand Constructors Inc., is complaining his way through the courts, mutant identity and all. The Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund compared the Adarand litigation to Dracula–“it refuses to die no matter how many stakes are driven into it.”
Closer to home, John Duff’s Windy City Maintenance sham has landed in the midst of this cluttered and confusing affirmative-action landscape. Reduced to its simplest form, we had an alleged white male-owned company posing as a female-owned business, and thereby getting contracts reserved for fledgling female-owned businesses.
The media immediately began to call this affair by another name. Instead of accurately describing the situation as gender-based abuse, one paper’s headline read: “Janitorial firm loses minority edge,” while The New York Times referred to the “minority program being misused.” This interpolation of minority rather than female abuse is like calling affirmative action goals “quotas.” That is inaccurate and seemingly designed to be divisive.
This plays right into the hands of the Builders Association of Chicago, which is proposing a suit against the city’s set-aside program and will doubtless use the Duff case as evidence that the program doesn’t work.
Mayor Richard Daley is one of the few mayors in the United States who has continued to promote and defend an economic opportunity program of the type we have in Chicago. His administration should be saluted, not sullied.
It’s true, some abuse of minority set-asides has occurred. And yes, those abuses must be stopped. But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Verification of authentic minority and female business activity can be achieved through improved monitoring mechanisms. Contractors are routinely required to prove up their insurance coverage, OSHA compliance, Chicago residency requirements and payment of “Davis-Bacon” wages on federally funded projects. Proving ownership and genuine contract performance shouldn’t be a problem.
What fair-minded people need to know is that the enemies of black inclusion in Chicago’s construction industry are the same forces out to end affirmative action in Florida, California and Colorado. The past 30 years have opened many doors for minorities in construction here, but there are those who would nail shut Chicago’s effort to promote equity for minorities in building programs. They must not succeed.
Rather than curse the darkness of despair of blacks who loiter on urban streets, minority contractors are lighting candles. We are creating opportunities for them to learn a skill, support their families and ultimately, rebuild their own communities.
