European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 17, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday August 17, 1991 the stars and stripes James j. Kilpatrick Page 13commentary let s Stop haggling pass Dan Forth civil rights Bill sen. John Danforth now has Given up on president Bush. The Missouri Republican will make no further Effort to find a Compromise on a civil rights Bill. Instead he will join forces with Senate democrats to get action As soon As Congress reconvenes on sept. 9. Very Well. With some reservations and with one derisive Hoot i am prepared to say go ahead and pass the Danforth Bill. A few lawyers will get Rich a few Blacks and women May Benefit and a few Whites will suffer discrimination in reverse. But the heavens wont fall. I am prompted to venture a word of support for several reasons. First Dan Forth a package is the simplest and most forthright of All the civil rights Bills that have been floating around Capitol Hill since this session began. Second the presidents stated reason for opposing Danforth a key Bill May Best be described in a kindly word As baloney. Danforth would overrule five decisions of the supreme court but he would overrule them sensibly. His most controversial measure s. 1208, would overrule wards Cove v. Antonio. This was the 1989 Case in which the High court overturned its Ovyn 1971 decision in Grieg v. Duke Power co. Having to do with requirements for employment. By Way of background Willie Griggs was among 14 Blacks employed As common labourers at Dukes Dan River station in Draper . In 1965, the company decided that no person would be hired unless he held a High school diploma or passed a Standard intelligence test. The Rule had a serious Impact upon Blacks the victims of racially segregated schooling. The supreme court speaking through chief Justice Warren e. Burger in 1971, unanimously held the requirements unlawful. Nothing is wrong said the court with qualifications that a a fulfil a genuine business  tests May be used but Only if they have a a Manifest relationship to the employment in  the Touchstone said Burger is a business  Danforth a Bill As i read it closely tracks the language of the Griggs decision. The measure Speaks repeatedly of a business  it requires that an employment practice must Bear a a Manifest relationship to requirements of effective Job  at another Point the Bill Speaks of a a Manifest relationship to a legitimate business objective of the  it seems to me that such phrases As a effective Job performance and a legitimate business objectives Are not so impenetrable that judges would find their construction impossible. The words Are not arcane. If Danforth and his colleagues would add a provision expressly renouncing quotas american employers would have a Bill they could live with. The presidents bizarre objection is embarrassing. To prevent an employer from uniformly requiring a High school diploma of new hires said Bush would a seriously if not fatally undermine efforts to improve education. The president Dragoone Lamar Alexander Secretary of education into supporting this foolishness. Alexander said Danforth s Bill a would Send precisely the wrong message to students and  Young people would believe that a staying in school does no to matter.�?�. What hokum Burger met the Issue head on a history is filled with examples of men and women who rendered highly effective performance without the conventional badges of accomplishment in terms of certificates diplomas or degrees. Diplomas and tests Are useful servants but Congress has mandated that they Are not to become masters of  one provision in Danforth a package ought to be hooted Down. He would apply All the new rules to private employers but he would leave Congress alone. The private employee who feels discrimination May go to court. Under Danforth the congressional employee who feels discrimination could go Only to an ethics committee. How hypocritical can we get Danforth a plan is to Combine his three separate Bills into one Catchall measure. These would overrule not Only Griggs but also cases known As Lorance Patterson Price waterhouse and Birmingham firefighters. Even the president agrees that Lorance and Patterson ought to be corrected. Danforth s language in the other two areas will demand close scrutiny but his purpose is generally sound. The country i submit is fed up with legalistic haggling. Let us pass Danforth a Bill with amendments and get on to matters of greater meaning to minorities than statutes of limitations consent decrees and disparate Impact. C Universal press Syndicate Tom Wicker America s quota policies Are As old As bigotry a after centuries of the most blatant preferences in every aspect of american life a preferences for Whites males usually for those of Western european Stock almost always for English speakers and All too often for protestants. In the face of this history of discrimination is rigid even handedness now to be the test of a candidates or a party a Devotion to american values a that question was raised in this space on july 4 a which seemed an appropriate Date. The question seemed timely too. Because now a some preferences Are called quotas and Are extended to Blacks hispanics asians and  thus because they sometimes a inconvenience or disadvantage a White protestant male a such a a quotas Are under political tire a from president Bush among other mostly White critics. The argument Here advanced was that american life never was a evenhanded color Blind  so if preferences that might Benefit a Black or a woman were now to be considered unacceptable that would not Only be a blatant hypocrisy Quot but the effective result would be a pervasive preference for White  one of Many critics of this View was Russell Nieli a lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson school at Princeton University. In a published letter to the times he argued that polls showed americans heavily favored a a strict meritocratic system and opposed a racial  no doubt a but polls also show americans opposed to Many elements of the Bill of rights still others oppose current High Levels of defense spending. Does Nieli really want to advocate government by poll two respondents spoke eloquently to his other arguments Hymen Diamond an attorney in Monroeville pa., disputed Nieli a claim that the american Public a understands something about Justice and fairness that backers of affirmative action do not. How do you explain Diamond asked in an unpublished letter to the times that a during the first half of this Century racism and anti semitism were rampant and competency had no meaning Why then is competence now demanded and preference denounced preferences for White protestant males once were commonplace while jews scraped for jobs a Black College graduates made a living As Pullman porters and Black ballplayers were excluded from the major leagues a unless they could pass themselves off As  professor Martin Kilson of Harvard wrote that Nieli was a will informed in contending that compensation should be a victim specific a restricted to people who suffered individual Bias like interned japanese Ameri cans during world War 11. A compensatory responses to jewish survivors of the holocaust have been quite broadcast Quot Kilson noted in an unpublished letter a even with the state of Israel itself not existing at time of injury functioning in part As beneficiary. A so just As nazi coercion of jews affected All German jews. American slavery and racial caste victimization affected All afro americans not just working class and poor and this in turn requires that the compensatory policy a affirmative action policy a likewise Benefit All Black  affirmative action policy Kilson wrote a is As natural to american culture As Apple pie a having been practice on behalf of a Farmers veterans businesses regions . The Tennessee River Valley a and such individuals As Black lung victims not to mention a contracts and jobs allocated by cities counties and states controlled by White ethnic bloc political  thus to argue now that such Aid for Blacks is unfair tends to confirm diamonds View that White critics of affirmative action a a make a pretence of seeking Justice and fairness but really want Only a to keep minorities in their  c the new York times