You knew that it would happen – you just didn’t know when. A group of conservative students at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island are offering a Whites-only scholarship. Valued at only $250 each, African-Americans weren’t going to be lining up for the scholarships under any circumstances. But that’s not the point.

Jason Mattera, president of the College Republicans, the group offering the scholarships, said, “We think that if you want to treat someone according to character and how well they achieve academically, then skin color shouldn’t be an option.”

Skin color is not an option – we are all born the way God created us. But taking advantage of scholarships for people of color is an option, as Mattera, who is of Puerto Rican descent, knows. He received a $5,000 minority scholarship offered by his university. Now, he can join Clarence Thomas and Ward Connerly in the Affirmative Action Hypocrites Hall of Fame. To qualify for membership, one has to personally benefit from affirmative action and later denounce the race-conscious and gender-conscious programs.

In addition to Whites-only scholarships, other sophomoric attempts at humor include so-called affirmative action bake sales. At Southern Methodist University in Dallas, for example, Young Conservatives of Texas offered cookies at different prices. White males were charged $1 for each cookie, White women 75 cents, Hispanics 50 cents and African-Americans 25 cents. Similar “bake sales” were held at Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Texas, Northwestern University, the University of Michigan and the University of Indiana.

A flyer distributed by Columbia’s Conservative Club asserted that Republicans “need to get preferential admissions treatment so they can receive equal representation on campus.” Many were not amused. Asad Sheth, a student at Columbia, told the school newspaper, “I think this approach trivializes the importance of the subject matter.”

If affirmative action weren’t such a serious issue, these campus antics would be laughable. Antics aside, we should not be lulled into believing that because the Supreme Court ruled last year that it is lawful for the University of Michigan Law School to operate an affirmative action program, within certain boundaries, that the war over affirmative action has ended.

Within two weeks of the Michigan ruling, Ward Connerly, who spearheaded passage of the Proposition 209 anti-affirmative action measure in California, announced that he was going to launch a similar ballot initiative in Michigan.

It’s important to remember that the Supreme Court permitted – but did not require – universities to use affirmative action programs. That means that universities, employers and administrators of local and state contracts are not compelled to have an affirmative action program. It also means that California’s Proposition 209 outlawing affirmative action at the state level remains in place.

Threats to affirmative action come in different forms. Americans for a Fair Chance [www.fairchance.org] published a recent report titled, “Anti-Affirmative Action Threats in the States: 1997-203.” The report notes that over the past six years, legislation or resolutions that would have banned affirmative action were introduced in 28 states, ballot initiative campaigns were launched in two and an executive order was issued in one. Most of those efforts failed.

Therefore, it should be clear that this fight is far from over. We should not let these silly White scholarships and phony bake sales blind us to the real threat posed by the Right-wing campaigns to eliminate affirmative action.

Some voters are duped into supporting Proposition 209-like measures, in part, because the news media does such a poor job defining affirmative action. It does such a losy job because it has adopted the language of the Far Right. Journalists should be reminded that affirmative action and so-called preference programs are not interchangeable terms.

News outlets should also be criticized when they conduct or write about poorly-worded surveys on affirmative action and then erroneously proclaim that most Americans are against affirmative action. Most polls show that the contrary is true, if the questions are asked in a neutral way. It’s only when the news media adopts the inflammatory and misleading language of the Far Right that the true meaning of affirmative action gets obliterated.

With affirmative action being attacked on so many levels, progressives can’t afford to rest.

“Supporters of affirmative action must remain vigilant in their efforts to educate voters and legislators about the importance of affirmative action,” the FAIR report stated. “Further, efforts must continue to protect and expand these important programs, so access to education and opportunities in the workforce can be achieved and guaranteed for all.”