Those Californians who voted for Proposition 209 in 1996, "gutting" affirmative action, may see their State paying reparations if a landmark decision prevails by the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upholding the constitutionality of the use of race as a factor for admission to the University of Michigan Law School. Proposition 209 ruled out race as a factor in admissions to the University of California system and as a result, disastrously decreased the number of Black students from 562 in 1997 to 305 in 2002 with 0 admissions to its Boalt Hall Law School in 1998. Although there has been much resistance to reparations for slave descendants, disenfranchised African Americans would be actual victims today.

Now comes, Ward Connerly, who as a Black man, has deprived Blacks and other people of color of affirmative action in California with his Proposition 209. With his March 2002 Racial Privacy Initiative Ballot Measure, he has set out to deprive Blacks and other people of color of the racial data needed to measure their status involving racial discrimination, health, education, employment, criminal justice and an assorted number of other factors beneficial to the progress of minorities. A Field Poll in May showed that 48% of California voters back the measure which surprisingly is also backed by Black conservative author Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institute, located at Stanford University. Consequently, if the Measure passes, how would you know that in Alameda County, CA the percentage of African Americans suffering and dying from 19 major diseases is higher than any other race or ethnic group in the County? How would you know that there are more Black men in prison than in college in California or that African Americans are three times as likely as whites to have family incomes below the poverty line.

Connerly's proposed colorblind society Initiative, "sees no evil or hears no evil," trashes affirmative action and imperils the general welfare of Blacks in California. So, how do we really get a true colorblind society in America? Lets fantasize? First, since DNA samples of 3,000 individuals throughout the U.S. by researchers at Penn State show that more than 50 million American whites have at least one Black ancestor, we could expose them all to be Black on the traditional "one drop of blood" rule.

Next, the new African American Museum & Library at Oakland currently has an exhibit entitled the "Color of Money," eloquently displaying portraits of slaves depicted on money in the days of slavery. At that time, the value of slaves accounted for over half of the American wealth or more than the value of all the banks, manufacturing, real estate, railroads, services, etc. put together. If one half of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) today was paid to descendants of slaves as reparations, we would have a colorblind society. Then the "color of man" becomes the "color of money."