Last week there was a march on Tallahassee planned by preachers. People say that this is another case of a white man making rules for blacks without their input. Save Dade is the organization of gays and lesbians that fought for the Miami-Dade County ordinance that makes it illegal to discriminate against them in housing, employment and finance. I grew up in Alabama, went to separate schools, drank out of colored-only water fountains, rode in the back of the bus. But I saw my first black millionaire before affirmative action was created.
Affirmative action is a strategy to include minorities in the process of acquiring economic wealth.
But it did not do all it was supposed to do. Jeb Bush came up with a different strategy with the help of some committed and dedicated people, including blacks and other minorities. If you think that affirmative action as it is today is your only hope, then you really ought to be afraid. Not of Bush, but of Connerly and everyone else. If you see affirmative action as only a strategy that can be improved upon, then you will give the One Florida Initiative a chance and even offer some constructive input.