Affirmative Action Foes Seek Mich. Referendum Affirmative Action Foes Seek Mich. Referendum
Initiative Would Amend State's Constitution
washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A31942-2004Mar4¬Found=true
By Robert E. Pierre, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 5, 2004; Page A03
DETROIT -- Only months after a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding affirmative action in higher education stemming from cases at the University of Michigan, this state has again become an epicenter in the fight over racial preferences.
Opponents of affirmative action have launched a bid to amend Michigan's constitution to strip racial preferences from state university admissions, state hiring and contracting.
They sought the assistance of Ward Connerly, a regent of the state university system in California who has gained national prominence for his efforts to end affirmative action there and in other states. And they have attracted back to Michigan a plaintiff in the challenges to the University of Michigan's admissions system, Jennifer Gratz, to lead the constitutional campaign. The campaigners are trying to gather 317,757 signatures by July 6 to get the proposed ban on November's ballot.
"I absolutely believe that treating people differently because of skin color is wrong," Gratz said. "We've had an overwhelming response. We're answering hundreds of e-mails, and we've had thousands of phone calls."
Some of Michigan's most prominent public officials, including Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm (D), oppose the campaign and argue that it will mean fewer women and minorities in government and reduce diversity on the state's college campuses. But opposition to affirmative action is strong here; a January poll in the Detroit News said 64 percent of state residents oppose racial preferences.
Gratz was denied undergraduate admission to the University of Michigan in 1995. Together with another undergraduate admissions applicant, as well an applicant to the university's law school, they sued, saying they lost out to minorities who had lower grades and test scores.
In June, in the most important affirmative action decision in a generation, the Supreme Court upheld the law school's admissions program, which sought to find a "critical mass" of minorities for its classes, and rejected the undergraduate system which relied on a point system to boost minority enrollment. The net effect of the court's decisions was to permit public universities to use race as a factor in admissions provided they take sufficient care to evaluate individually each applicant's ability to contribute to a diverse student body.
The referendum campaign is Connerly's brainchild. He announced the Michigan effort during a visit to Ann Arbor in the days following the Supreme Court's decision.
"The court decision altered the balance of power between those who are in favor of preferences and those of us who aren't. We will not countenance that . . . distinctions based on race are wrong," Connerly said in an interview.
In 1996, his American Civil Rights Coalition successfully sponsored California's Proposition 209, and two years later won a push for Initiative 200 in Washington state. In Michigan, organizers plan to raise $600,000 and use hundreds of volunteers and paid staffers to collect signatures.
Connerly has already become a primary target, tagged by some as a rabble-rousing outsider.
At a news conference on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Granholm, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) and other political leaders stood alongside the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to voice their displeasure.
"We will stand up to [Connerly], stand up to all who oppose affirmative action," Kilpatrick told a crowd of cheering supporters here not long ago.
"We won't allow them to put a black face on a red, white and blue problem," said Detroit NAACP president the Rev. Wendell Anthony, referring to Connerly, who is African American. "If we sit quietly and don't speak up, we are in trouble."
State Rep. Leon Drolet (R) of suburban Detroit, who supports the campaign, said he is happy to have Connerly's help but that it is more important what Michigan voters think.
"Our opponents are using weapons of mass distraction," Drolet said. "Every signature is going to be of a Michigan citizen. They don't want to discuss the issue, because they have already lost that debate."
Leaders of Citizens for a United Michigan -- an umbrella group of those defending affirmative action -- are working to educate voters about what they call the deceptiveness of the amendment. The language of the Michigan petition adopts wording from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forbidding the state to "discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin" in public employment, university admissions and contracting. Instead of ending discrimination, they charge that the new amendment would allow more discrimination against minorities.
"We have to get the word out not to sign these petitions," said retired Brig. Gen. Michael Rice, who is chairman of Citizens for a United Michigan. "This will have far-reaching effects. It will have unintended or intended consequences, depending on who you ask. We're asking people not to throw their signature away in a shopping mall."
Among other things, Rice predicted a rollback in hiring minority police officers and firefighters, the number of women who enroll in the math and sciences at state universities and the diversity on college campuses. For instance, University of Michigan officials reported this month a sharp, 23 percent decline in the number of blacks, Hispanics and American Indians seeking admission. Officials blame the prolonged court battle.
"It could be devastating in terms of our ability to have a diverse student body," said Marvin Krislov, the university's general counsel, noting that outreach programs to attract women and ethnic minorities could face elimination.
Ron Edwards, a writer and talk show host, thinks that is a good thing. A resident of Royal Oak, just outside Detroit, the Cleveland native said he teaches his children to stand on their own two feet. Without affirmative action, he said, minorities and women who do graduate will not have to wonder whether they were good enough to move forward on their own.
"Discrimination is as present as oxygen," said Edwards, who is black and has lived in the Detroit area for a decade. "But a defeat of discrimination is not through government-sponsored discrimination. If you want to hurt a racist, succeed."
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