Prop. 209 ‘Shocked’ Many of Its Supporters, Clinton Says

President Clinton said Thursday that he believed that many Californians who voted for Proposition 209 were “shocked” when they learned about the measure’s devastating impact on the enrollment of African Americans in some elite professional schools.

“I don’t think the people of California wanted that to occur,” Clinton said in response to a question at a gathering of 3,000 African American journalists. “I think the rhetoric sounded better than the reality to a lot of voters.”

Clinton’s opposition to Proposition 209 and a similar ballot initiative that passed in Texas has long been clear. But in his remarks Thursday, the president explained more extensively than before both his dismay over the new level of minority enrollment in California’s professional schools and his optimism that the anti-affirmative-action measures would not last.

“I think if we all work on it, we can reverse it in a matter of a couple of years,” Clinton told the gathering at the convention of the National Assn. of Black Journalists.

The president said his administration was determined to use any legal measures available to dilute the impact of anti-affirmative-action initiatives.

He urged supporters of affirmative action to continue to search for innovative ways to counteract Proposition 209.

“It’s a great concern to me,” Clinton said. “I think it is moving the country in exactly the wrong direction.”

Before addressing the black journalists here, Clinton spoke to the NAACP in Pittsburgh, Pa. He called on both audiences to help him with his racial-reconciliation initiative.