Clinton Declares Affirmative Action Is ‘Good for America’ : Policy: President urges nation to mend the system, not eliminate it, and orders reforms. Address is hailed by liberal Democrats and civil rights advocates.

In an unapologetic embrace of liberal Democratic Party values, President Clinton declared Wednesday that affirmative action has been “good for America” and urged the nation to “mend it, not end it.”

Having concluded a six-month study of preference programs for women and minorities, Clinton asserted that the 25-year-old system retains its value in correcting historic wrongs and helping expand an economy that increasingly depends on minorities and women. Even as he ordered new efforts to root out abuses, Clinton insisted that “in the fight for the future, we need all hands on deck. And some of those hands still need a helping hand.”

Recounting the incomplete successes of the civil rights movement and his own personal experience, Clinton portrayed the issue as a matter of America’s loftiest aspirations. And while he acknowledged the presence of abuses in the system, he rejected suggestions that reverse discrimination is widespread.

“There are voices of division who would say, ‘Forget all that,’ ” he said. “Don’t you dare. Remember, we’re still closing the gap between our founders’ ideals and our realities.”

The long-awaited address, delivered in the marbled solemnity of the National Archives in Washington, drew rhapsodic reviews from liberal Democrats and civil rights advocates who six months ago feared that Clinton was about to back away from affirmative action in the face of rising nationwide controversy. The civil rights community hopes that the speech will begin a presidential campaign to increase public support for programs that no longer have the wide public acceptance they once did.

Myrlie Evers-Williams, head of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, praised Clinton for “his bold, decisive statement,” while Democratic Rep. Julian C. Dixon of Los Angeles called it a “giant step forward.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, now considering a challenge to Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, called the President’s remarks “one of his finer hours as a leader of the country,” although he added: “What we heard today is not where the White House was three months ago.”

But it provoked an explosion of denunciation from GOP presidential aspirants and other Republicans, who asserted that affirmative action programs are an unfair and outmoded obstacle to a race-blind society.

“He is trying to keep in place a system that will contain the virus that threatens to tribalize America, to divide us,” Gov. Pete Wilson told reporters in Sacramento. Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos said that “tribalize” is racial code language, but Wilson countered that he was only quoting historian Arthur Schlesinger, a Democrat, who has used it to refer to increasing conflicts among ethnic groups in society.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said: “This is not a difficult issue. Discrimination is wrong. And preferential treatment is wrong too.” Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) said that Clinton “is committed to solving the problem of discrimination in America by extending unfair advantage to even more people.”

The term affirmative action, which was coined during the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration, refers to programs that attempt to make up for past discrimination against minorities and women by giving them preference in college admissions, employment and government contracting, while stopping short of relying on numerical quotas. Long an article of faith for most Democrats, but especially liberals, the concept has come under rising criticism from moderates and conservatives.

In its forceful and uncompromising language, the speech represents a substantial political risk for Clinton, who has trod carefully on the divisive affirmative action issue since his first presidential campaign. To win reelection, he badly needs the support of moderate voters who may be suspicious of affirmative action. He may especially need them in California, where the issue burns hottest.

But as he heads into the campaign year, he may need even more to solidify his political base among minorities and liberals and to avert a possible independent challenge by Jackson.

And perhaps he needs most of all to persuade Americans that he is willing to stand up for the things he values, even in the face of political pressure to do otherwise.

In its liberal sentiments, Clinton’s speech contrasted markedly with speeches that he has recently delivered on such subjects as budget cutting, school prayer, deregulation and violence in the media.

To deliver his remarks, Clinton stood before the preserved original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, which he called “America’s only true crown jewels.” He clearly sought to suggest that the principles of racial equality should also be dear to Americans.

He recalled his youth growing up in segregated Arkansas and his first visit to the archives in 1963, the year the University of Alabama was forcibly integrated, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech only blocks away in Washington.

Clinton outlined what he said were the achievements of racial progress, including a space program that began exclusively with white male astronauts but grew to include women and minorities, including Sally K. Ride, Ellen Ochoa, Leroy Chao and Guion Bluford.

Clinton recalled that affirmative action had been developed with bipartisan support under a Republican President, Richard Nixon. He said that it grew out of years of “trying to navigate between unacceptable paths” of simply declaring discrimination illegal or trying to “impose change by leveling Draconian penalties on employers who don’t meet certain imposed, ultimately arbitrary and sometimes unachievable quotas.”

He said that racial bigotry is still commonplace, citing as the “worst and most recent evidence of this” reports of a racist picnic in Tennessee attended by federal agents, including some from the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI.

The event was a “sickening reminder of how pervasive these kinds of attitudes still are,” Clinton said, declaring that he intends to take “appropriate action” in the case.

In conjunction with the speech, Clinton issued a memorandum calling on agencies to review their affirmative action programs to ensure that they are in compliance with the Supreme Court’s June ruling that race-conscious government programs must be judged under a standard of “strict scrutiny.”

But he argued that the case does not necessarily spell a sharp scaling back of affirmative action, since, he said, state and local government have continued such programs under similar standards.

Clinton also called for a new federal set-aside program to funnel federal contracts to businesses in poor areas, even if they are owned by whites. The “empowerment communities” program, to be developed under the supervision of Vice President Al Gore, would need approval from the Republican-controlled Congress, a fact that appears to diminish its chances of becoming a reality.

Clinton acknowledged the flaws of some affirmative action programs and said that he has directed U.S. officials to root them out. The government needs to crack down, he said, on companies that pretend to be eligible and are not.

He said that criticisms of the evenhandedness or effectiveness of programs have been “fair questions.”

Yet while Clinton acknowledged abuses in execution of the programs, he staunchly defended their underlying principles.

Clinton praised the most controversial aspect of affirmative action, the set-asides that apportion a share of all contracts for minorities or women. “It has helped a new generation of entrepreneurs to flourish,” he said.

More Inside

* UC DEBATE--UC regents are poised to consider the most far-reaching rollback of race- and gender-based preferences yet. A3

* CONTRACTS--In government contracting, the final word on affirmative action will likely be spoken in the courts. A12

* GOP POSITION--Republicans are in disarray over how forcefully to oppose race-based policies. A13

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Orders From the White House

Highlights of White House action Wednesday on federal affirmative action programs.

CLINTON’S ORDERS

President Clinton told heads of federal departments and agencies directing that any affirmative action program must be eliminated or reformed if it:

* Creates a quota

* Creates reverse discrimination

* Creates preferences for unqualified individuals

* Continues even after its equal opportunity purposes have been achieved

THE SET-ASIDE PROGRAM

Vice President Al Gore is to lead a Community Empowerment Board that will develop a set-aside program targeting federal contracts to small companies, regardless of their owners’ sex or race, that locate in poor communities. “Looking beyond the issue of fair and effective responses to discrimination, we must recognize that there are communities and regions in our country where the free enterprise system is not working to provide jobs and opportunity,” the report said.

THE SUPREME COURT GUIDELINES

The high court set affirmative action standards recently, ruling that:

“All racial classifications” by government agencies are “inherently suspect and presumptively invalid.” The court said such programs cannot be broadly applied to remedy suspected discrimination over time, but could be used to correct specific, provable cases of discrimination.

Source: Times staff and wire reports