Leaders of NAACP Blast Bush Rights Bill : Minorities: Measure would lead to ‘plantation system’ of unemployment, according to opponents. ‘It’s abhorrent,’ says L.A. chapter president.

The Bush Administration’s civil rights bill represents a setback for minorities and women that could lead to a “plantation system” of unemployment, leaders of a nationwide group for African-Americans said Tuesday.

Responding to President Bush’s unveiling Friday of his latest civil rights bill, a handful of presidents of local branches of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People lashed out at a portion of the bill requiring employees to waive their right to sue against discrimination.

“It’s abhorrent,” said Joe Duff, president of the NAACP’s Los Angeles chapter. “You don’t require someone to waive their civil rights to get their civil rights.”

Duff joined leaders from the Inglewood, Compton, Santa Monica-Venice and state NAACP chapters at a news conference denouncing the bill as “racist” and a “bastardization of the original intent” of Title VII, a federal anti-discrimination law.

Last year, Bush’s veto of a law he argued would have required racial quotas caused an uproar among civil rights activists. The issue is nearing the boiling point again because parts of the latest bill work against, rather than for, minorities, the NAACP leaders said.

“We cannot let the Administration give us second-class justice, simply because they think we’re second-class citizens,” Duff said of the provision waiving the right to sue. Once that happens, many victims of racial bias will have little or no chance for justice, he said.

But Administration lawyers contend that portion of the legislation is important “in light of the litigation crisis facing this country.”

“It’s just not true,” Duff countered, arguing that there are not enough racial discrimination cases in the courts.

The bill would eventually create a “plantation system of unemployment” in which minorities would find themselves without jobs because they would have little protection from racial bias at work, said Royce Esters, president of the Compton NAACP chapter.

The leaders also jabbed at the bill’s treatment of women. Under the measure, women would only be able to collect damages for sexual harassment--not for other forms of discrimination.

“If they make this law, we’ll be dead,” predicted Michele Duncan, a member of the Santa Monica NAACP.

The leaders are pushing for a stronger bill, similar to the one Bush vetoed last year.