Equal Employment chairman talks on future of civil rights

Racial and age discrimination are the two largest issues facing the civil rights movement as it heads into the next century, the top U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission official and University Trustee said yesterday. In a speech entitled "Civil Rights in the 21st Century," the official, Gilbert Casellas, described the changing nature of the civil rights movement to more than 50 students and professors in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Casellas said the hostile attitude many Americans, including Congressional leaders, have toward the civil rights movement is the most pressing issue it must confront. He cited California's Proposition 209, which outlaws affirmative action, and initiatives to make English the official language of both individual states and the nation as examples of the difficulties facing the civil rights movement. "People now seem to be promoting division and diatribe instead of discussion," said Casellas, a 1977 Law graduate. Casellas said the EEOC faces a particularly daunting task because the workforce is the only place where people of different races and ethnicities consistently come together. Another issue the EEOC must confront in the next century is the growing complexity of "racial categorization," according to Casellas. He noted that more and more Americans now label themselves as a specific race, such as Latino, Asian or mixed, instead of the old binary classification system of black and white. The success of the civil rights movement in the future "depends on whether we can transcend the categories of the past," Casellas added. Beyond racial discrimination, the agency also now faces the increasingly important issue of "ageism." As the nation's baby boomers reach 50, complaints of age discrimination in the workplace continue to increase. Casellas emphasized that the continuing cutbacks in federal funding for the EEOC will force the agency to rank the relative importance of the different types of discrimination, further complicating its efforts. "If the underfunding continues, the agency will have to answer the question of who's more deserving of protection," he said. Responding to criticism levied at the EEOC by both the public and Congress, Casellas said the agency will never be popular because civil rights groups think it is not doing enough and businesses think it is doing too much. During a question and answer session following his speech, many audience members questioned Casellas about affirmative action. In response to one question, Casellas challenged the negative stereotypes surrounding the issue. "Affirmative action wasn't designed to fight discrimination. It was designed as a remedy," he said. "When we enforce antidiscrimination laws, we will seek certain remedies and sometimes that remedy is affirmative action." While Medical and Social Work Professor Aileen Rothbard said she enjoyed Casellas' talk, she said she was not convinced by his argument that affirmative action can successfully resolve racial inequalities. "My feeling is no one has a problem with affirmative action when it is about meritocracy," Rothbard said. "The difficulty is when it gets enacted when people don't necessarily have equal skills."

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