Due to the importance of continuing efforts to fight the implementation of Proposal 2, Media Mouse has reprinted this article by Diane Bukowski of the Michigan Citizen.
DETROIT -- Last week, Michigan voters banned affirmative action. Many believe the ban will further disenfranchise Black and minority students, workers and contractors. Proposal 2 was passed by a 58 to 42 percent margin on Nov. 7. Yet, civil rights activists say the fight isn't over.
Activists are waiting for the results of a pending lawsuit and have filed an additional case to ensure affirmative action continues.
"We believe Proposal 2 violates the 14th Amendment [which guarantees equal rights] as well as the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the University of Michigan case," said attorney Shanta Driver of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). In the 2003 U-M Grutter case, the Supreme Court upheld the use of affirmative action to ensure diversity at U-M's law school. Driver believes the only way to enforce the Civil Rights Act is through affirmative action."
Earlier this year, By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) along with Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Operation King's Dream filed a lawsuit which is still pending in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. The lawsuit charged that Prop. 2 reached the ballot through "racially targeted" voter fraud.
The original ballot proposal, sponsored by the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), bans all so-called "race and gender preferences" in state and local government hiring, contracting, and school admissions. Many of those who signed the MCRI petition testified that they were lied to by circulators claiming it supported affirmative action.
"If we succeed at the Sixth Circuit," said Driver about the pending case, "Proposal 2 would be tossed out. It should never have been on the ballot. A federal judge has already ruled that it was based on massive fraud."
Driver and attorney George Washington also filed a second suit Nov. 8 asking the federal courts for immediate injunctive relief blocking Proposal 2's implementation, on behalf of BAMN, the Rainbow PUSH coalition, numerous students, six union locals, and the Defend Affirmative Action Party, a University of Michigan student organization.
"We now have the state of California [as an example] and the effects Proposition 209 had there to use in our arguments. Where affirmative action programs are ended, we end up with the state allowing discrimination against Black and minority students, workers and contractors to exist," said Driver.
Studies since the passage of Proposition 209 in California in 1996 have shown that it drastically cut the already small number of Black and Latino students at state universities, as well as the number of contracts going to Black and women-owned firms.
Driver said Prop. 2 was on the ballot with the support of Democrats and Republicans--both parties needed significant voter turnout.
"The referendum process is currently being used with complete cynicism by both parties to increase voter turn-out," said Driver. "Instead of being used as part of a democratic forum to bolster the gains of the civil rights movement, it is being used to turn them back. Twenty years after Brown v. the Board of Education, if there had been referenda held in southern states to overturn Brown, they would have succeeded."
She also said the question of civil rights cannot be decided in the isolation of a voting booth, where voters can secretly take advantage of their white privilege, but must be dealt with under a social and transparent process.
Defendants in the second suit include newly re-elected Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who also received an overwhelming vote of 56 to 42 percent. As chief executive, she is responsible for its ultimate enforcement, although she campaigned against Prop. 2 and filed an amicus brief in the voter fraud case.
In a statement, Granholm said, "I am sad and disappointed voters said yes to Proposal 2. Passage of Proposal 2 eliminates some of the tools we have used to promote diversity and create equal opportunity in Michigan, even though diversity and equal opportunity are critical goals for our state."
Granholm issued an executive directive for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission to begin an immediate investigation of the possible effects of Proposal 2 including its impact on "the ability of the State of Michigan to compete within the global economy." The Commission, which found massive voter fraud in the collection of signatures by the MCRI after four hearings earlier this year, will report back 90 days after the investigation begins.
Max McPhail, spokesman for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which was funded by wealthy right-wing businessman Ward Connerly and numerous right-wing foundations said the passage of Prop. 2 is a "huge step forward for our state."
McPhail is no relation to the City of Detroit's General Counsel Sharon McPhail, who represented Mayor Kilpatrick as a party in the voter fraud suit.
