Race Rules the Air - FCC's affirmative-action regulations

As he girds for further courtroom battles over preferences, Kennard is moving forward on other fronts as well. Early in his tenure, he signaled that he would condition FCC approval of mergers and acquisitions on "a company's willingness to help diversify the ownership in the marketplace." His stance recently paid off in a big way for Chester C. Davenport, one of the nation's wealthiest black entrepreneurs.

SBC Communications, Inc., a "Baby Bell," is now trying to win FCC approval for its acquisition of Ameritech, another Baby Bell. So in April, in what SBC executives openly described as a bid to appease Kennard, Ameritech announced that it was selling half of its wireless- telephone business to GTE and a company owned by Davenport, who is reported to have a net worth of as much as $100 million.

Speaking of ways to make the wealthy even wealthier, Kennard has asked Congress to reinstitute the program that gave tax breaks to corporations that sold radio and television stations to minorities. That program is the only racial preference eliminated by the Republicans since their takeover of Congress and was widely regarded to represent affirmative action at its worst: Among other problems, companies often used wealthy minorities as fronts to acquire stations on the cheap. As a result, a few lucky black Americans ended up making a bundle for little or no work.

Over the last couple of years, William Kennard has turned the FCC into a hotbed of race-conscious activism. While his agenda may benefit a Stevie Wonder or two, dividing Americans by race, in the telecommunications industry or elsewhere, will do little to aid the truly disadvantaged. Nor will it bring us closer to the day when, to paraphrase one of songs with which Stevie is associated, ebony and ivory will live together in perfect harmony.

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