The playing field really isn't equal when it comes to employment and finance. Minorities still make around 70% of whites in America, and it gets worse for females. Minorities are under represented drastically in industry across the country in positions of leadership; look at housekeeping and taxis, though, and you'll know where most minorities are.

This, to me, means that affirmative action is still needed in America. I'm not about to go into what affirmative action really is supposed to be, but if you need a refresher you can check it out by going here. All anyone really wants in America is a fair chance.

That's why Ward Connerly and his group, oddly enough called the American Civil Rights Coalition, doesn't get it. They've already gotten California, Michigan and Washington to vote against affirmative action, and this coming election there are five more states on the docket, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Connerly's message is really simple. He says people who get benefits from affirmative action assistance are looked down upon by everyone else, and that's not fair. He also says it takes things away from one group to help another group, and that's not fair.

To me, it's all about how you look at fair. On an ESPN special last month, there was a discussion of why there are so few black coaches in college football when most of the players are black, and it was stated that people tend to hire who they're familiar and most comfortable with, and thus that means if those in charge of hiring aren't minority, unless coerced, they're less liable to interview, let alone hire, a minority for those positions. Connerly's position seems to believe that the playing field is equal and everyone actually has a fair chance at every single job they wish to apply for; that's a pipe dream,... it's not reality.

Of course one of his big supporters happens to be a particular Supreme Court justice who actually ended up in college, then law school, because of affirmative action polities, and believes those policies have ended up hurting him because people always wonder if he's qualified to do the job he's been hired to do. I keep thinking people wonder if he's qualified because he doesn't ever ask any questions, and rarely writes his own briefs after most of the cases (yeah, I know, he's written some; seems they all fit into one book).

Ward Connerly doesn't get it, and if the rest of America doesn't wake up, we will all know, come November, who else is getting it come 2009.