LECTURES : Sociologist to Discuss Affirmative Action : Professor from UC Santa Cruz believes the programs have been beneficial and hopes they will be continued.

Hardy T. Frye, sociology professor at UC Santa Cruz, will discuss the hot-button issue of the moment, affirmative action, Tuesday at UCSB.

Passed as part of civil rights legislation during the last hurrah of old-fashioned liberalism in 1964, affirmative action banned bias in employment, thus increasing opportunities for women and minorities.

Currently, affirmative action is being assailed by Republicans who think it unfairly creates racial quotas and reverse discrimination. Democrats view affirmative action as necessary to counteract centuries of institutionalized racism.

Just last week, President Clinton appointed a commission to defend the program against Republican attacks. In Sacramento last week, another round of bills set to eliminate state affirmative action policies was killed in committee even as Gov. Pete Wilson moved to dismantle nearly a score of women and minority-dominated advisory councils. A 1996 state ballot initiative on the fate of affirmative action seems likely.

Frye, an African American and a nationally recognized expert on affirmative action, was interviewed on the phone recently:

Why do you think affirmative action is such an issue now?

There’s no doubt in my mind that people are very uptight. Everyone is looking for an advantage, and there is a perception that women and minorities have had advantages.

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Bob Dole said recently, “People in America are paying the price for things done before they were born.” What do you make of that?

So what price does he think he’s paying in a country where 25% of the people are people of color? He doesn’t understand the law and how it works. Now people are being asked to share and cutbacks have created a tremendous amount of fear. If you look at the progression from Kennedy and Johnson through the Carter administration, we were just about getting to where things were improving in the work force and people were getting used to it and--boom--they want to stop it?

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A recent L.A. Times poll noted that three times as many people feel harmed by affirmative action than those that have benefited. How do you respond to that?

As a scholar, I must say that’s a most interesting dynamic. I remember when I lived in L.A. after I got out of the Army, wearing my only suit walking around trying to get a job and people telling me they weren’t taking applications.

Now I have a Ph.D. from Berkeley, but sometimes when I walk into a room, there’s still this feeling of being maligned. I can’t have any control over how other people see me. I walk in wearing a black face to give a lecture, and if people think, “Here comes the affirmative action professor.” Well, I can’t get caught up in that. The reality of the situation is that it’s better for people to see me performing in my role as opposed to reinforcing their stereotypical beliefs.

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We don’t know what’s going to happen, but what do you think should happen?

We should continue to do what we’ve been doing. Diversity was beginning to become familiar, and familiarity breeds tolerance. The one place diversity was beginning to take root was in the workplace. I think in the final analysis, if I had a stereotypical view, and I never had the chance to observe a person up close, then if I did, my views would be challenged. This is especially true in California where the minorities are right around 50%.

Details

* WHO: Hardy T. Frye, lecturing on “National and State Politics and the Attacks on Affirmative Action.”

* WHEN: Tuesday, 4 p.m.

* WHERE: UCSB Multicultural Theater.

* HOW MUCH: Free.

* CALL: 893-8411.