This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Amendments to the Utah Constitution should be rare and sorely needed. But some lawmakers want an amendment to end affirmative action policies that have helped minimize the effects of discrimination on minority citizens and women for decades. The effort is not only unnecessary but misdirected and ill-conceived.
The amendment would likely prohibit government policies and programs singling out minority groups or women. It would require approval by two-thirds of both the House and Senate before going to voters in 2012.
Affirmative action programs were begun to help minorities and women overcome past and present discrimination. But legislators contend that white males now have fewer opportunities to be hired, promoted or admitted to colleges because of policies designed to give a leg up to Americans who traditionally were largely powerless. They have yet to produce evidence that white men are now disadvantaged.
Affirmative action has not run its course. Regrettably, it's still very much a white man's world. In the 111th Congress, there are 357 men and 78 women in the House; 18 women and 82 men in the Senate. The Congress is overwhelmingly white: 354 of the House's 435 members; 97 of 100 senators. Women account for only 18 percent of the membership of the Utah Legislature, and the Senate and House each have only two minority members.
The numbers of women and minorities holding top posts at corporations are even smaller, somewhere between 5 and 18 percent, depending on the type of business. Utah has the lowest percentage of women-owned businesses in the country. Minorities account for 6 percent of partners in the nation's major law firms; women about 19 percent. Less than 7 percent of all physicians are members of minority groups. About two-thirds of all doctors are men.
Government has a role to play in achieving equal opportunities for all Americans. Before the passage of Title IX, women were nearly nonexistent in high school and college athletics. The federal equality rule has opened up a new world for female athletes, and that has led to more of them succeeding off the fields and courts as well.
Outlawing affirmative action could mean the end of outreach programs to encourage women and minorities to go to college, start businesses or enter professions. It would eliminate education programs for minority children, as California did in 1997.
Utah is largely homogeneous, with white men dominating leadership in all areas. They don't need protection from programs meant simply to give others an equal chance.