Backers of Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative Fail Signature Drive in Missouri
Posted on May 7, 2008
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Missourians won a major victory in the fight for fairness and equal opportunity on May 6 when the so-called Missouri Civil Rights Initiative (MoCRI) failed to qualify for the November ballot, the ACLU announced in the press release issued yesterday.
One of a series of ballot proposals California businessman Ward Connerly has spearheaded across the country, the MoCRI aimed to eliminate affirmative action programs that help to open doors to opportunity for countless people of color and women across the state. The defeat of the MoCRI affirms what recent polls have shown: that a strong majority of Americans – 70% according to The Pew Research Center – support affirmative action.
“Today’s victory shows that, when held up to public scrutiny, Connerly’s initiative can’t pass muster,” said Brenda Jones, Executive Director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. “The citizens of Missouri have a firm commitment to equality, and have demonstrated that commitment by refusing to fall for Connerly’s tricks.”
As the May 4 deadline to submit signatures loomed, Connerly and his allies engaged in questionable tactics, including tricking voters into signing their petitions, in a desperate attempt to collect the roughly 140,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. And when Secretary of State Robin Carnahan revised the MoCRI’s ballot language to make voters aware of its impact on affirmative action, Connerly and his allies sued her.
The ACLU filed an amicus brief in support of Secretary of State Carnahan and joined with WeCAN MO – a coalition of faith groups, community and labor organizations, students, and businesspeople – to educate voters about the true intent of the MoCRI.
“Trying to push through an initiative voters don’t understand is not true democracy,” said Brenda Jones. “When equal opportunity and the civil rights of our citizens are at stake, it is critically important that the electoral process be fair, transparent and honest.”
The defeat of the MoCRI comes on the heels of another Connerly defeat in Oklahoma, where he and his allies last month moved to withdraw their so-called Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative (OKCRI) after a group of concerned citizens, represented by the ACLU and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed a lawsuit challenging OKCRI’s fraudulent signature-gathering tactics.
Legislative Briefing on Impact of Prop 209
Posted on March 27, 2008
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In 1996, Proposition 209 eliminated affirmative action in public education, employment, and contracting. Recent research conducted by the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, and the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity will provide legislators and staff with information regarding the impact of the elimination of affirmative action on business, employment and education opportunities for people of color and women of all racial groups.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Capitol Building, Room 127
Noon to 1 p.m.
This briefing will provide a framework to discuss legislative options that support inclusive business and educational practices that have the greatest potential to improve outcomes for California’s diverse populations.
Presenters include representatives from: Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice (UC Berkeley School of Law); Insight Center for Community Economic Development; and Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity (UC Berkeley School of Law).
Sponsored by The California Commission on the Status of Women, California Women’s Legislative Caucus, Latino Legislative Caucus, Legislative Black Caucus, Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, Insight Center for Community Economic Development, and the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law
AP: Race-Based Admissions in LA Schools OK, Says Judge
Posted on December 12, 2007
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From the Associated Press (Dec. 12, 2007):
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s practice of using race as a factor in enrolling students for its popular magnet programs doesn’t violate an anti-discrimination law, a judge has ruled.
In a ruling filed Monday, Superior Court Judge Paul Gutman upheld the nation’s second-largest school district’s integration plan, which also buses volunteer minority students to schools in certain parts of the city.
The American Civil Rights Foundation had filed a lawsuit in 2005 claiming the district’s practice violated a voter-approved initiative that outlaws racial preferences in all public programs in California.
District officials contend they are exempt from the court order and the state law because they’re operating under a 1981 court-ordered desegregation program.
“It appears quite clearly and beyond dispute that … LAUSD was ordered to employ race and ethnicity to ensure that the magnet schools would in fact be segregated,” Gutman said. He noted that the 1981 order did not set a date for desegregation goals to be achieved.
“It thereby becomes beyond rational argument that the order approving implementation of the desegregation plan … still exists … and has never been affected by any subsequent ruling,” the judge said.
An attorney for the foundation said he planned to appeal the decision.
Thank You and Evaluation Form Request
Posted on October 31, 2007
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Thank you to the participants, speakers and staff who contributed to Friday’s symposium on Economic Opportunity: The Labor and Employment Impact of Proposition 209 at the UCLA Faculty Center.
If you registered for the symposium - whether or not you were able to attend - please help us by completing an online survey. It will help us assess the symposium content and planning. Download papers presented at the symposium and other resources on this site.
Special thanks to the Fulfilling the Dream Fund and the Akonadi Foundation for their generous support!
We would like to thank the following organizations and individuals for their assistance: Read more
Papers Being Presented Today
Posted on October 26, 2007
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A Vision Fulfilled? The Impact of Proposition 209 on Equal Opportunity for Women Business Enterprises
Monique W. Morris, Michael D. Sumner, Jessica Z. Borja
Affirmative Action Programs and Business Ownership among Minorities and Women
Robert Fairlie, Justin Marion
Diversity Management in America and the Affirmative Action Debate in France
Christine Pauwels
The Effectiveness of Affirmative Action in Highway Procurement
Justin Marion
Free to Compete? Measuring the Impact of Proposition 209 on Minority Business Enterprises
Monique W. Morris, Sirithon Thanasombat, Michael D. Sumner, Sara Pierre, Jessica Z. Borja
The Impact of State Affirmative Procurement Policies on Minority- and Women- Owned Businesses in Five States
Tim Lohrentz
Minority Preferences In Public Contracts
Christopher M. Westhoff, Jess J. Gonzalez
Using Race or Ethnicity as Factors in Employee and Contractor Outreach
David Benjamin Oppenheimer
Impact of Prop. 209 on Labor and Employment
Posted on October 26, 2007
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Scholars and labor experts will today discuss at UCLA how Prop. 209 has impacted labor and employment in California at a symposium titled “Economic Opportunity in California: The Labor & Employment Impact of Prop. 209.”
Proposition 209, California’s anti-affirmative action initiative, went into effect in 1997. Much of the research on Proposition 209 in the decade since has focused on the impact of the initiative in higher education admissions. There has been comparatively little research examining the impact of the initiative on public employment and contracting, and even less that looks at the secondary socio-economic impacts of the initiative. These issues are becoming increasingly crucial to examine as proponents of Proposition 209 seek to place similar initiatives on the ballot in a number of other states.
The symposium, which takes place from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the UCLA Faculty Center, 480 Charles Young Drive East, is organized by the California Coalition to Analyze the Impact of Proposition 209 (Impact 209 Coalition) and UCLA’s ethnic studies centers. Various other UCLA centers, programs and student organizations are co-sponsoring. The Impact 209 Coalition’s current research initiative is supported in part by grants from the Fulfilling the Dream Fund and the Akonadi Foundation.
Thomas A. Saenz, counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will give the keynote address. Other speakers at the symposium include:
- UCLA Acting Dean Reynaldo Macías, Division of Social Sciences.
- UCLA Associate Vice Chancellor Rosina Becerra, Office of Faculty Diversity.
- Darnell Hunt, UCLA professor of sociology and director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.
- Paul Ong, UCLA professor of urban planning, social welfare, and Asian American studies.
- Ruth Milkman, UCLA professor of sociology and director of Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.
- Bob Laird, former UC Berkeley director of undergraduate admissions and author of “The Case for Affirmative Action in University Admissions.”
In 1996 and today, much of the public dialogue over Proposition 209 has been driven by rhetoric divorced from social science research. Additionally, the state of California has not assessed the effects of this dramatic policy change, especially in light of the dramatic demographic shifts that have taken place since Proposition’s passage.
Social and racial justice advocates have been concerned about learning the true impact that Proposition 209 had on the state of California and decided to begin articulating a vision for statewide policy solutions that bring about fair and equal access to opportunity.
Bios of speakers, presentation abstracts and papers are available on http://impact209.org.
Impact 209 Symposium Still On; Not Impacted by SoCal Fires
Posted on October 23, 2007
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The Impact 209 symposium is still on schedule. The firestorms in Southern California (Google Maps) have not impacted UCLA. But please book extra time to arrive at UCLA due to increased traffic conditions.
Registration Full, Waitlist Available
Posted on October 17, 2007
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We’ve reached our registration capacity for the symposium, but we’re still taking waitlist registrations that will allow you to attend if space opens up. Individuals on the waitlist will be accommodated on a space-available basis by checking in with our registration table at the Faculty Center on the day of the symposium.
Due to last-minute cancellations and no-shows, we won’t know about space availability until that day. Please note that registrations accommodated through the waitlist may not receive lunch and space at certain sessions may either be full or require that you sit or stand in a designated overflow area.
Register for the waitlist and view our updated schedule.
Black Population Drops 9% in California Says New Report
Posted on October 15, 2007
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Compelling State Interest will reveal a variety of statistics on the dramatic change in the socio-economic status of African-Americans in California. The presentation will be Oct. 26, 2007 at UCLA in the Economic Opportunity in California symposium.
African-American population in California dropped nine percent from 2000 to 2006, according to Census estimates reported in the presentation “Compelling State Interest: California A Contra-History Without Prop. 209.”
“This is a scale not seen since the Exodus of 1858, when blacks left San Francisco for British Columbia due to the Fugitive Slave Act,” said historian John William Templeton, author of Our Roots Run Deep: the Black Experience in California, Vols. 1-4.
The 2006 estimate from the American Community Survey is 2.26 million African-Americans. The 2000 Census reported 2.476 million, an increase of 11 percent from the 1990 total of 2,198 million.
Most of the larger counties in the state report declines. The report will be presented Friday, Oct. 26 at Economic Opportunity in California: the Employment and Social Impact of Prop. 209 at UCLA. For more info, call 415-240-3537.
County declines were: Ventura 11.2; Santa Clara 16.8; Santa Barbara 27.0; San Mateo 21.3; San Francisco 24.5; San Diego 20.4; Orange 7.6; Monterey 27.3; Los Angeles 10.5; Fresno 6.4; Contra Costa 3.4; Alameda 18.1 percent.
Gainers were San Joaquin 13.4, San Bernardino 6.8 and Sacramento 0.6 percent.
The Exodus of 1858 involved the migration of 700 of the 5,000 blacks in the state to British Columbia to move away from discriminatory legislation such as the right of testimony law and the Fugitive Slave Act.
Templeton has previously observed a trend in California away from average rates of growth for self-employment in the past four years as author of the State of Black Business reports.
This report, part of a day of presentations on the impact of the anti-affirmative action initiative, looks at a variety of other demographic attributes. This multi-variate approach will help to distinguish which policy changes played the greatest role in the abrupt shift in population and other trends.
Symposium Schedule Now Available
Posted on October 4, 2007
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The schedule for the symposium is now online here. And the time of the symposium has been revised to 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Please register if you haven’t done so already. The symposium is free, but we do need you to sign up.
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