EATTLE - Vice President Al Gore urged Americans yesterday to reject ballot initiatives that chip away at affirmative action and to examine the attitudes that make such efforts popular. He said he would ''fight for fundamental fairness'' as president.
Speaking to a convention of minority journalists, the vice president decried I-200, a Washington state initiative that wiped out affirmative action programs in public education, employment, and contracting. Voters approved it in November.
Gore, who is hoping to succeed President Clinton, originally focused on the ''digital divide'' that locks many minorities out of the high-tech economy. But he wound up elaborating on affirmative action.
Without offering specifics, Gore said he believes ''we have to continue the use of tools that accelerate the removal of these barriers that come from the kind of tragic history that slavery represented, and that the injustices against other groups have represented.''
''I pledge to you I will do all I can to close the opportunity gaps,'' Gore said. ''We don't need more scapegoats or more phony ballot propositions like I-200. We need to all examine the kinds of attitudes that crop up in response to national problems and national debates.''
Gore was responding to Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe and the National Association of Black Journalists.
''Instead of ... calling I-200 phony, which is easy to do, would you do something that Clinton did not do, which is fight for affirmative action in the white communities and the white boardrooms of America?'' Jackson asked.
Gore defended Clinton, saying the president took an active role in trying to preserve affirmative action programs in California's colleges and universities.
Gore's Democratic opponent, Bill Bradley, addressed the Unity '99 gathering on Thursday. Republican candidate George W. Bush initially declined an invitation to speak, but showed up Thursday to work the crowds. GOP candidate John McCain spoke to the group Thursday.
