Constitution, Backlash Counter Race Card President’s Goal To Improve Relations Must Deal With Resistance To Favoritism

In calling Saturday for a renewal of affirmative action programs at America’s universities, President Clinton is bucking public opposition to such policies and increased skepticism by the nation’s courts.

A recent poll showed that only one in six whites but nearly half of all blacks believe minorities should receive preference in college admissions. Moreover, the Supreme Court has said race - for better or for worse - should not matter and that people are “more than mere racial statistics.”

What this means is that Clinton - as he tries to make improved race relations a national goal and a personal legacy - must deal somehow with both a white resistance and judges who believe the Constitution does not allow government to categorize people by race, even to benefit those who have long been disadvantaged.

While many in America appear to think it is time to put race aside and stop seeking remedies for past segregation, the president will have to demonstrate why special attention for blacks, Hispanics and other minorities is necessary to breach the racial divide.

The Supreme Court has said race-based policies generally “reinforce the belief, held by too many for too much of our history, that individuals should be judged by the color of their skin.”

In his speech in San Diego intended to kick off a yearlong campaign to repair the racial rift, the president pointed to the drawback of abolishing affirmative action in education. He noted that the repeal of such programs in Texas and California had prompted minority enrollments in state law school and other graduate programs to drop for the first time in decades. “If we close the door on them we will weaken our greatest universities and it will be more difficult to build the society we need in the 21st century,” Clinton said.

Last year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, covering Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, said public universities may not consider a student’s race as a factor in admissions. “To believe that a person’s race controls his point of view is to stereotype him,” the appeals court said. The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the University of Texas, leaving the appeals court ruling in place.

Two years earlier, the 4th Circuit, which covers Virginia, Maryland and three other states, struck down a University of Maryland scholarship program exclusively for blacks, saying “of all the criteria by which men and women can be judged, the most pernicious is that of race.” The Supreme Court also rejected an appeal of that decision.

Separately, California universities have cut back on affirmative action. While voters in California have approved Proposition 209, ordering the repeal of affirmative action policies in government programs across-theboard, that broadly based initiative has not taken effect because of legal challenges.

The Supreme Court has not in recent years directly ruled on programs that would benefit racial minorities because of past discrimination, but it has found in the areas of federal contracting and voting districts that racial classifications “balkanize” society. A narrow but controlling majority believes that such policies “embody stereotypes that treat individuals as the product of their race, evaluating their thoughts and efforts - their very worth as citizens” - by the color of their skin.

While courts have have been increasing their scrutiny of such policies, public opinion could be another barrier to Clinton’s efforts.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News survey found that 17 percent of whites polled think blacks and other minorities should receive preference in college admissions to make up for past inequalities; 49 percent of blacks think minorities should get preferences.

A poll conducted by the Gallup Organization, found blacks are twice as likely as whites to favor increasing affirmative action for minorities in hiring, contracts and schooling.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: COLOR BY NUMBERS Speaking to a student body that is 45 percent white, 28 percent Asian, 27 percent Hispanic and 5 percent black, the president noted the drop in minority enrollment in the year after California universties ended affirmative action. The number of blacks admitted to the University of California’s Boalt Hall law school tumbled 81 percent and Hispanic admissions fell 50 percent, Clinton said. Similarly, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled public universities could not consider race as a factor in admissions, minority enrollment at the University of Texas law school plummeted to 10 black students accepted for next fall from 65 last year.