“It’s going to take a generation or two to turn things around if we get serious now,” Ferguson says. “If Black folks don’t find ourselves moving up faster, we may find ourselves in a position that is really awkward.”
In recent years, Ferguson has surveyed high school students to gauge their views on whether affirmative action is justified if it ensures diversity on college campuses. Across racial lines, about 46 percent of students surveyed — Blacks, Whites and Hispanics — had no opinion on the issue, while about 25 percent of the students agreed and 29 percent disagreed.
“This data tells me that, overall, among young people this is not their issue,” says Ferguson. But he notes that White students — even at the high school level — are more anti-affirmative action than students of color.
Connerly says that data signals that affirmative action is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
“I knew that we would get to this point, but I did not think it would happen this fast,” he says, referring to 1995, when he initiated Proposition 209. “That’s a short time in the life of a nation.”
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