Posted on 10/18/2006 9:54:31 PM PDT by raygun
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Her voice tired but her passion as strong as ever, Jennifer Gratz took the lectern in a recent debate here and talked about what she's been talking about for nearly a decade.
"When we put an emphasis on race or sex through university admissions, through public employment, through policy, we teach people that it is OK to treat people differently," Gratz, 29, said as she debated this fall's Michigan referendum that would ban affirmative action in public education, hiring and contracting.
Civil rights leaders said the vote will influence the affirmative action debate nationally.
Gratz, a white woman from suburban Detroit who graduated 12th in her high school class, sued the University of Michigan in 1997 for discrimination after being denied admission. In June 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gratz's case and another case that colleges and universities can consider a student's race when making admissions decisions in order to promote diversity but can't use rigid formulas to do so.
The day after that ruling, Gratz called Ward Connerly, the black California businessman who led a successful voter initiative to ban affirmative action there. She had met him once...in the coatroom at the Supreme Court. "I said, 'We have to do something about this,'" she recalled during an interview at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
The vote comes as affirmative action, one of the nation's most controversial social issues, remains in the spotlight. The Supreme Court will hear cases this term from Seattle and Louisville about whether public elementary and high schools can consider race in assigning students to specific schools to maintain a racial balance.
Backers of the Michigan proposal say individuals should be judged on their merits. Opponents say that eliminating affirmative action would derail gains made by minorities and women, and would lead to less diversity in government jobs and the state's colleges and universities, particularly the University of Michigan.
Polls released within the past week were conflicting, but both indicated a tight race with many voters still undecided. Pollster Ed Sarpolus said that whether the proposal passes will depend on whether supporters can sway voters to believe this is an issue about race, or whether opponents can convince the public that women and the greater public will be negatively affected.
"There is a large enough undecided [bloc of voters] that it could go either way," said Sarpolus of EPIC-MRA, a Lansing-based public opinion research firm.
Opponents recently began airing two statewide radio ads, including one that compares the passage of the proposal to the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Karen Shively, a 58-year-old legal secretary who listened to the debate in Grand Rapids, is among the undecided.
"Everyone should be given a fair look...But people who need a boost up should be given the help," said Shively, who is white. "I guess what I don't understand about this initiative is how far does it go? Will it go too far?"
The proposal's opponents sued to keep the issue out of the election, claiming individuals were misled into thinking that they were supporting affirmative action when they signed petitions to get it on the ballot. A federal judge expressed a belief that there was fraud, but he dismissed the case because there was no evidence that minorities in particular were targeted, which would have violated the Voting Rights Act.
There has been at least one debate or forum somewhere in the state nearly every day for weeks. Activists from both sides hand out pamphlets before University of Michigan football games, religious leaders in Detroit and the suburbs are preaching on the issue, and the National Urban League president has toured the state.
Virtually every religious, political, business and civic organization in Michigan opposes the measure, with groups as diverse as the Michigan Catholic Conference and the Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center joining to form the group One United Michigan, which has raised about $2.7 million, said spokesman David Waymire. Both candidates for governor, incumbent Democrat Jennifer Granholm and Republican challenger Dick DeVos, are against it.
At Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit recently , Vivian Carpenter, an African-American business leader and University of Michigan graduate, sold T-shirts and passed out cardboard fans that said: "Don't roll back progress for Michigan. Vote No on 2."
Carpenter, who in 1973 was the second black woman to graduate from the University of Michigan with an engineering degree, credits affirmative action. She was recruited to the university through an outreach program for minority students in Detroit public schools.
"All of these programs are good for leveling the playing field and creating opportunities for minorities where there would be none," said Carpenter, who also has graduate degrees from the university.
But Sarah Ledford, a white U-M engineering student, disagrees that women and minorities should get a boost. She stood outside Michigan Stadium on a recent Saturday, handing out fliers about why citizens should vote "yes" on Proposal 2.
Mash mouse-button here for page-dos (c'mon its the page prior to page-tres)
Much thanx to the eadsup from MI-Quantim for this SCOOP SCOOP SCOOP SCOOP!
"Where do I begin...?"
You weren't s'poda do that. The post was messed up, and I requested the post be deleted.
Now I'll have to post "make-up" posts, and forever my posting record will be indeliably stained.
Pardom me for the hiccup. I thought I was wrong, but turned out I was right.
Wonder if I could get elected in Michigan if I said minority kids aren`t smart enough to pass the same addmision tests as whites?
We're actually working on whether saying that would be legal or not. After all, there are important matters needing dealing with in this state.
So if you are one of those of the persuasion who seek intrigue and exitement, I exhort and urge you to seek your fortune here in this here fair state.
However, if you are one who desires a fair shake, seeks to be a self-made person, recognized for their accomplishments and desire to be left alone and un-fettered from the intrusive presence of the heavy hand and footprint of government beauracracy, well, then, this could get interesting.
How do you feel about "change"? And I'm not talking 'bout the kind you find in your couch when a frat buddy puts your head into the cushions because of something or another.
I was starting to sing the song...
Nothing directed at you, but rather at the situation.
Now, all cleared up.
Are you a white male?
I think it was from "Love Story", but don't hold my feet to the fire.
My Mom, who managed to ecke out an RN degree (on her own dime) because of need due to my white UAW 40 year employed GM Dad decided he was going to abuse crack, told me that the students in her class were upset that she got an "A" on all the exams.
Oh, no, everybody both native and foreign reviled Mom. Of course, Austrian Mom at 57 said that she had an easier time completing the course (ending up getting along better with the foreign students), than the native born who fumed and sputtered at her after each exam; they struggling to keep up the bottom part of the curve (above "washout").
Next time you're at the Doc's office and you can't understand anybody but the receptionist, think 'bout that.
Without doubt, I'll tell you from personal experience of 18 years as a programmer/analyst: Grandstanding Jenny desires to dumpt your tax revenues into a sink-hole having no bottom.
I'll tell you this: Don't you bullshit me. I've been in this business far too long. Don't YOU bullshit me.
I've sat in departmental meetings, where 4-year IT college degree'd people couldn't read what I wrote. When I inquired, they responded that they didn't know what the word was that I used, and therefor couldn't read it aloud. When suggested that they just "sound it out", I was met with a stare as if I had three-heads.
And so it came down to this: In a professional setting, and public forum, i.e, a inter-departmental progress meeting, a co-worker acknowleged that she didn't know the word that I had used in my project status report.
O.k., lets just throw out "sardonic", that's a word that you might not know the definition of. But pronouncing the word should be pretty straightforward, eh? I'm referring to a poly-syllabic word akin to "multiculturalism".
While that's not the word in contention here, this college graduate (not at the bottom, nor them middle of her class) insisted she'd "never learned the word, and therefor did not know how to read it."
"That's fine," says I, just "sound it out. Then look it up in a dictionary." She looked at me like I had three heads. "Well. Not EVERYBODY is an Einstein.".
Needless to say, that after I clashed with a female CPA who became my supervisor after my original boss left, who inquired my assessment of how long a project would take (but don't take too long since I already quoted the job), I was fired. And this was a Kris Kraft affiliated company.
If anybody wants affirmative action: I think whitey needs it. Lets get it done NOW. Because once blacks and "minorities" are running the businesses, "whitey" is going to need affirmative action.
And here I thought it was Brian's Song.
And I'll bet it will too. I don't know about folks in other states, but when we're trying to figure out what to do in Texas our first step is invariably checking out how they handle it in Michigan. LOL
lib/dems candidate obama....affirmative action in progress!
It is really a shame that a ballot proposal to ammend the constitution is required to action what the constitution already disallows. Rascism is rascism, period. That the socialists of MI can't see their own rascism is a clear sign of how stupid the socialist is. Now, we shall see a wisdom borameter in this state.
No, I meant it as a harmless jest. Please don't take offense.
btt
There's a 2nd issue on which Dick is wrong.
Still must better than Comrade Granholm.
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