Free Republic

The 12 million or more who entered the United States illegally, and would gain United States citizenship under the current immigration proposal, Senate Bill 1348, will qualify for race preferences and privileges for which the majority of Americans are not eligible. This is not fair. That is the view of Ward Connerly of the Sacramento-based American Civil Rights Institute, a veteran of battles against racial preferences in California, Washington and Michigan, and who believes that "race and ethnic preferences ought to be wrong under any circumstances." The current immigration measure, Connerly believes, would constitute a massive endowment of such preferences....

Yesterday, I published an essay indicating that the basic fabric of America is holding despite the efforts of the hate-America crowd to unravel it. I didn’t mean to say that we should all relax, or that the dangers weren’t still out there. The multiculturalists are still hard at work trying to destroy the concept of an American experience and an American culture – born and sustained by the melting pot.

Inviting Ward Connerly to speak to a special Wisconsin legislative committee studying affirmative action is like inviting the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan to address a hearing on race relations. Connerly is a black man who has received millions of dollars from Milwaukee's Bradley Foundation and other right-wing organizations to travel the country opposing affirmative action for black people.

Nine western states could be among the next sites for debate over whether race and gender should be considered in determining who gets into public universities and who gets government work. The expanded effort announced Wednesday was sparked by the recent success of a ballot proposal to amend Michigan's constitution, said Ward Connerly, chairman of the Sacramento, Calif.-based American Civil Rights Coalition. The group supports banning public affirmative action programs based on race and gender preferences, a proposal that passed in Michigan in November with 58 percent of the vote. “It played a huge role,” Connerly said of the group's...

'Free to lose' isn't good philosophy for the right wing November 19, 2006 BY MARK STEYN Sun-Times Columnist If Milton Friedman had to die, then a week after the defeat of a Republican Congress that had apparently forgotten every lesson Friedman taught in Free To Choose is eerily apt timing. As it happens, had ill health not intervened, Professor Friedman would have been disembarking round about now from a National Review post-election cruise with yours truly and various other pundits and commentators. Instead, we were obliged to sail without him, and in the days that followed I found myself wondering...

Ward Connerly has done it again: A striking 58% of Michigan voters gave the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative a thumbs up; only three counties voted against it. The language of the MCRI closely tracks California's 1996 Proposition 209, also led by Mr. Connerly. It amends the Michigan Constitution to "ban public institutions from using affirmative-action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes." The political and business establishments, pressure groups like the AARP, labor-union leaders, religious spokesmen, the professoriat, the major Detroit...

After an otherwise grim election, conservatives can exult in the improbable, landslide win of Proposition 2 banning racial and gender preferences in Michigan. A pity the Republican party can’t share in the celebration. That’s because Michigan Republicans found it more politically expedient to join Democrats and Big Business in opposition to Prop 2 than to fight for the principle of race neutrality in government admissions, hiring, and contracting. The party’s reasoning? By throwing the initiative overboard, they hoped to keep minority turnout low, thus helping GOP nominee Dick DeVos in his run for governor against incumbent Jennifer Granholm. But these...

OAKLAND — Political and social activists, historians and educators from the United States and around the world are gathering in the Bay Area this weekend to discuss reparations for slavery of African people and colonialism in Africa. "The wealth of the West is built on slavery of African people," said Penny Hess, chairwoman of the African People Solidarity Committee. "White people need to recognize it and support (reparations)." Hess is one of nine speakers during the two-day event set for Saturday in Oakland and Sunday in San Francisco. The event celebrates African People Solidarity Day and calls for the white...

<4>PROP. 209 LEGACY: Connerly continues controversial effort over college admissions - California's champion of color-blind college admissions has made his way to Michigan and is aggressively promoting a measure similar to Proposition 209, which outlawed the use of racial preferences in admissions to California's public colleges 10 years ago. Ward Connerly, the former UC regent, wants to end affirmative action nationwide and has spent the past decade on campaigns seeking bans on race-based college admissions. "Affirmative action has perpetuated the notion that black people aren't as smart," he said. After heading the campaign for Prop. 209, which passed with 54...

by Mark Finkelstein August 2, 2006 - 14:07 On the one hand, liberals enjoy portraying themselves as models of tolerance and racial sensitivity. But woe betide someone who runs afoul of their orthodoxy. Liberals don't hesitate to bring out the crudest racial imagery to mock them. We've all seen the vulgar caricatures of Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice and Ward Connerly. Add Joe Lieberman to the liberal media hit list. Have a look at the image of Lieberman that popped up at Huffington Post today. It's in a column by one Jane Hamsher, who, her bio informs us, is a 'progressive...

Ward Connerly, a pioneering political spirit in California, has forged on to the Midwest, where he is trying to reshape Michigan's educational landscape. Michigan residents will vote next Nov. 7 on a measure nearly identical to California's 1996 Proposition 209, which ended the use of racial preferences in college admissions and state hiring. Many California educators blame the measure for plummeting minority enrollment. And just like in California, it is Connerly who has championed the affirmative-action ban in Michigan. As home to the well-regarded University of Michigan, the state has long been a battleground for higher-education policy tests. Following lawsuits...

The debate over race and gender preferences is always an intense one. Proponents of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) believe that all people should be treated as equal individuals. We believe that any time a preference is given to an individual of one "race" over an individual of another "race," or to one gender over the other, treatment cannot be equal. We believe that all people should be judged based on character, merit, and accomplishments — not skin color or gender. I, for one, do not want to be given a preference over my brother solely because I am...

BERKELEY - A new UC Berkeley think tank will research whether Proposition 209, the state ballot measure that ended affirmative action at California universities, could be challenged successfully in court. Run by the Boalt Hall law school, the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity will take on one of the most contentious issues in higher education: whether race should be used as a factor in college admissions. The institute, to be announced Monday, also will study a broad range of other subjects, including the upcoming reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and civil rights in K-12...

The Board of State Canvassers met yesterday to consider approval for a ballot measure that would end affirmative action in Michigan. The meeting was clearly one of the most cantankerous to have occurred in Lansing in years as protesters gather outside the House Office Building to defend affirmative action. In the end, the Board was deadlocked on the issue even though its sponsor, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), submitted 65% more signatures than were needed to put the question on the ballot. A court challenge is expected. We will defer analysis of the legal merits to the legal challenge...

Complaints continue in affirmative action petition campaigns 6/9/2005, 8:16 p.m. ET The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The group behind an anti-affirmative action ballot proposal said Thursday it is filing a campaign finance complaint against one of its political opponents. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative complaint says the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (BAMN) intentionally underreported its campaign contributions. That allowed BAMN to avoid a trigger that would require it to open up its donor and expenditure records, according to the complaint, which MCRI spokesman Chetly Zarko...

A majority of small and midsize business owners and managers surveyed in a Crain’s poll support a state constitutional amendment banning racial, gender and ethnic preferences in state government and universities.The findings mirror another poll by John Bailey & Associates, which was commissioned by the Detroit Regional Chamber. Crain’s poll, conducted by EPIC-MRA, had a larger sample size. (See box, Page 88.) ... Ward Connerly — a former University of California regent and a nationally known opponent of racial preferences — is backing the Michigan initiative. A group called the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative circulated petitions in the state. Jennifer...

Complaint accusing anti-affirmative action group of campaign finance violations dismissed 6/6/2005, 6:51 p.m. ET By BREE FOWLER The Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — The Secretary of State on Monday dismissed a complaint by a pro-affirmative action group that accused the group behind an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative of money laundering and other campaign finance violations. The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (BAMN) claimed in the complaint that the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and California affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly unlawfully refused to disclose who has donated most of...

California lawmakers improperly and unconstitutionally adopted legislation two years ago that violated the state's ban on race-based preferences, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled Thursday. Ward Connerly called the ruling by Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Cecil another "nail in the coffin of preferences" based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. Connerly had argued in the suit that Assembly Bill 703, signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis, was an "end run" around Proposition 209, a 1996 initiative banning preferences in state hiring, contracting and education. "This is a happy day for me, personally, and for all of...

Thank goodness Confederate History Month is over! Maybe Civil Rights organizations, black politicians and journalists will stop whining for awhile. They must pay the Sons of Confederate Veterans on the side. Fat, middle-aged suburbanites waving Confederate flags create excuses for hysterical screaming. Ironically, the volume and shrillness of attacking Confederate heritage is inversely proportional to the actual racism and threat to personal safety. But, it’s profitable if you’re a race pimp. When your skin color is your day job, you need something to cry ‘wolf’ about. The professionally-black Blacks, whose jobs are based on ‘African-American’ in their titles, are working...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ward Connerly, who made fighting race-based admissions a constant of his career as a University of California regent, stayed with that theme to the end of his 12-year term with a lively discussion over the merits of affirmative action. In one of his last acts as a regent, Connerly invited UCLA law professor Richard Sander to present his recent research finding that black students admitted to law school by affirmative action ended up at a disadvantage. Sander found the students couldn't keep up with the rest of the class, posting lower grades and becoming more likely to...