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Civil
Rights Initiative More
Complex
Than Black and White
Part 1 of a 3-part series on the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative
By
Christopher Fischer
The Pointe Staff
October 17th, 2007
A storm
is brewing in the form of a lawsuit over the wording of a ballot
title. The Missouri Civil Rights Initiative (MoCRI) filed a legal
challenge this summer against Secretary of State Robin Carnahan
for altering the wording on a ballot issue submitted to her office
by the group in July.
Summarizing
a ballot initiative with a ballot title is common practice, but
Tim Asher, Director of MoCRI says, “her directive is to prepare
ballot title language that is neither intentionally argumentative
nor likely to create prejudice.
“Misleading
statements like this ballot title are standard practice for those
who support preferences and unequal treatment,” he said.
The
wording recommended by the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative for
the November 2008 ballot reads, “Shall the Missouri Constitution
be amended to prohibit any form of discrimination as an act of
the state by declaring:
“The
state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment
to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color,
ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment,
public education or contracting?”
The
Secretary of State’s wording which Asher and MoCRI oppose
reads,
“Shall
the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
“ban
affirmative action programs designed to eliminate discrimination
against, and improve opportunities for, women and minorities in
public contracting, employment and education; and
“allow
preferential treatment based on race. sex. color, ethnicity, or
national origin to meet federal program funds eligibility standards
as well as preferential treatment for bona fide qualifications
based on sex.”
The
court date is scheduled for December 17, although Asher says it’s
anyone’s guess as to whether anyone from the Secretary of
State’s office will be in court that day.
“She
won’t sit for a deposition nor will she provide anyone from
her office to sit for one,” said Asher, who is being deposed
next week.
The
Missouri Civil Rights Initiative is part of a larger movement
spearheaded by Ward Connerly, a political figure from California
who has had success with similar ballot issues in California,
Washington state and Michigan. Connerly plans a “Super Tuesday”
vote coinciding with the General Election in November 2008 which
will include Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arizona.
Lee
Cokorinos, a columnist for the Equal Justice Society,
calls these initiatives “right wing money ballot issues.”
“This
would turn the clock back in terms of race relations,” said
Cokorinos. The Equal Justice Society bills itself as a “national
advocacy group…advancing racial and social justice through
law and public policy, communication and the arts, and alliance
building.”
“You
have to take a look at who’s at the top,” said Cokorinos,
adding that a very small number of “rich white men”
were behind the large amount of money Connerly commands.
Familiar
names of donors to Connerly’s American Civil Rights Movement
in California included San Diego Padres owner John Moores, Sr.,
News Corporation Rupert Murdoch, late Colorado beer magnate Joseph
Coors, and Kansas City conservative political player John Uhlmann,
all of whom have donated amounts in the hundreds of thousands
of dollars to Connerly and his agenda.
“That’s
common to most ballot measures,” said Asher, citing the Stem
Cell Research initiative voters approved in Missouri last year,
where the majority of the money came from two individuals.
Cokorinos believes some of the motivation relates to other political
plans.
“Race
is a wedge issue, and the reason Jeb Bush didn’t want this
sort of thing on the ballot in Florida is that he was worried
it would bring more Democrats out to the polls,” Cokorinos
said, referring to several years ago, when the Florida legislature
pre-empted efforts by Connerly’s group and passed their own
protections against race-preferential treatment in college admissions.
Texas
rejected putting a similar measure on the ballot in 1999, and
instead came up with a compromise. The top 15 percent of students
from all high schools in the state get a scholarship for their
college education. Asher believes that this solution is better
than nothing.
“At
least it’s a solution that is race neutral,” said Asher.
He is no stranger to the issue of Affirmative Action as it relates
to higher education. Asher was the Director of Admissions for
North Central Missouri College, where he recruited from all over
Missouri. It was then that he first became aware of what he calls
race-preferential admissions practices.
“I
tried to change things that I saw as unfair. My supervisor put
a halt to my efforts and effectively, well he didn’t renew
my contract at the next available opportunity,” said Asher.
It was then that he got in touch with Connerly’s organization.
“Within
weeks of my leaving, the college changed their admissions policies,”
he added.
Asher says the idea behind the Civil Rights Initiative is that
one can’t just judge diversity by a single attribute such
as skin color.
“We
all have different backgrounds, come from different places, have
different hobbies and interests,” he said. “That is
what diversity is.” He feels that the passage of this initiative
will end reverse discrimination in the workplace and public contracting
as well as education.
Cokorinos
disagrees.
“My
major problem with all of this is that it will be a reversal of
the inclusiveness and diversity progress that has been made since
these programs were put in to place,” he said. “Public
services and contracts that were available only to whites for
two hundred years were opened up to everyone with Affirmative
Action, and the question we have to ask is, ‘do we want public
agencies to serve and reflect the diversity of their citizens?’”
Asher
argues that Affirmative Action wouldn’t go away just because
of the proposed amendment. He just wants to remove the preferences
based on race and sex, he says.
But
before he and MoCRI can do that, they have to get the required
number of signatures for their ballot by May 4 of 2008. And they
can’t begin until a court decision is handed down regarding
the ballot language.
See
the next edition of The Pointe for part two in this series, featuring
an interview with Ward Connerly of the American Civil Rights Initiative
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