The Michigan Review

Students Rant and Rave at Speech

by Benjamin Rousch

Before his actual speech began, Ward Connerly asked the audience to listen to him before shouting him down. A man who had obviously been in the position of speaking before hundreds of angry persons before, Connerly started off the session with a short fifteen minute speech and then proceeded to a question-and-answer session that took up most of the evening.

Connerly started off with a history of himself. He told of how he was discriminated against as a boy in the South, and recounted the hardships he endured because of the Jim Crow laws in Mississippi. He described how these experiences have shaped his life and how he thinks about the world. With respect to the racism he has experienced in his life, Connerly explained that he asks himself three questions: "How long should I be angry? At whom do I direct that anger? And, most importantly, what good does it do me?" This was met by a volley of boos and incoherent yells by the obviously upset crowd.

A key point of Mr. Connerly's speech was his views on affirmative action. He described how the term "affirmative action" is used to describe a huge number of programs and ideas from Outreach programs to racial preferences. He explained that he does not want to end all affirmative action programs just those that give special privileges based on the color of one's skin. Connerly made a point of emphasizing this. He explained that he wants to eliminate the morally wrong aspects of affirmative action, but keep in place the programs which benefit all people who need help, not just those of a certain skin color.

After his short introductory speech, Connerly turned the event into a question­and­answer session. A microphone was set up on one side of the room (it happened to be the side where the majority of affirmative action supporters had staked a claim) and people were given the chance to ask questions of Connerly.

The event went downhill from there as many questioners hurled insults and harangued Connerly. Many did not even ask questions but instead proceeded to rant about various obscure subjects (including the oft-repeated lines about organizing a mass, militant civil rights movement). Questioners repeatedly asked Connerly how he, as a black man, could want to end affirmative action? As Connerly tried to explain repeatedly the difference between racial preferences and other affirmative action programs, he grew increasingly exasperated. After enduring a few pointed insults, Connerly threatened to leave if his right to speak was not respected. And numerous times, pro­preference students booed and shouted Connerly down so no one could hear what he was saying. Nevertheless, Connerly continued to attempt to answer questions, although his irritation grew as the end of the evening approached. One woman, who appeared to be close to hysterics, shouted incoherently about alcoholic white women and said "you didn't know what you were getting into when you came to Michigan."

All in all, the evening showed that Michigan student radicals rank right up there with other campus radicals across the nation when it comes to forming an unruly mob incapable of listening to any opposing viewpoint. They also proved that our pro-preference forces are able to shout and chant like children with the best of them. MR

This article was published in the 1 April 1998 edition of The Michigan Review (Volume 16, Number 9).
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