***Michigan 3rd state to BAN Affirmative Action***

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News bulletin

Affirmative action ban OK'd

Michigan 3rd state to nix preferential treatment

November 8, 2006

BY SUZETTE HACKNEY

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

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Jennifer Gratz, executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, greets supporters Tuesday at a party at the Marriott in East Lansing. Gratz was the University of Michigan applicant in 1995 who was placed on a waiting list and later spurred a case heard by the Supreme Court. (KATHLEEN GALLIGAN/Detroit Free Press)

Related articles:

• U-M president says she'll go to court over affirmative action ban

• Effects of affirmative action ban will depend on the courts' take

Michigan voters sent a clear message about affirmative action programs that offer preferences to women and minorities: It's time for them to end.

Election Day numbers Tuesday showed the controversial proposal winning by a wide margin. Michigan becomes the third state to outlaw giving preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, 58%, or 2,129,506 people, voted yes on Proposal 2 and 42%, or 1,538,520 voters, opposed it.

Fran Smeak, 80, a registered Republican from Birmingham, said she read the pros and cons for the five ballot proposals, but Proposal 2 was the hardest to make a decision about. In the end, she voted for the ban.

"I can see how some people would feel like if they did not get extra help, they would not make it," she said Tuesday. "My overall view is that if everyone is on the same basis, then they should all get fairly treated."

The proposal was largely prompted by a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a general affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan's law school but struck down the undergraduate admission formula as too unyielding because it awarded points based on race.

U-M is the only university in the state that uses affirmative action to a great extent in admissions, but all public colleges and universities would have to reevaluate their outreach, scholarship and grant awards if they benefit gender or racial or ethnic groups. Programs that target specific groups in K-12 schools also would be affected.

Jennifer Gratz, the U-M applicant in 1995 who was wait-listed and later spurred the case heard by the Supreme Court, served as the executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, sponsor of the proposal.

"I am excited and hopeful that Michigan will finally be a place of equal opportunity for all," Gratz said Tuesday. "The people of Michigan are the ones who have won today. They stood up to big business, big labor, to the entire establishment and said, 'We want to be treated equally.' "

According to a poll of voters conducted by Mitchell Research and Communications Inc. of East Lansing, voters under age 40 were the only group to oppose the measure in significant numbers on Tuesday.

Men overwhelmingly supported the ban; women narrowly opposed it. Democrats opposed it while Republicans and independents favored it. Black voters strongly opposed the proposition, but it was passing among white voters.

Both Democrats and a majority of Republican leaders spoke out against Proposal 2. A coalition of 200 business, religious, labor, education and government officials and others also worked to defeat MCRI, which was backed by Ward Connerly, a former University of California regent.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Proposal 2 was the single biggest issue in the election, one that would shape Michigan's economy for years. He said the campaign against it got off to a slow start because of lack of money. One United Michigan raised about $3.4 million to oppose the measure.

David Waymire, spokesman for One United Michigan, said Michigan politicians now have the costly task of trying to figure out how to bring equal opportunity to all. "It's up to the leaders to step up and try to overcome this," he said.

Michelle Crockett, an attorney with Miller Canfield in Detroit, said Proposal 2 will be challenged with lawsuits.

"This is not the end of it, even though it may win tonight. It's going to be in the court for a long time to come," Crockett said.

Contact SUZETTE HACKNEY at 313-222-6614 or shackney@freepress.com. Staff writers Marisol Bello and Tina Lam contributed to this report.

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Much of the opposition to affirmative action is framed on the grounds of so-called "reverse discrimination and unwarranted preferences." In fact, less than 2 percent of the 91,000 employment discrimination cases pending before the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission are reverse discrimination cases. Under the law as written in Executive Orders and interpreted by the courts, anyone benefitting from affirmative action must have relevant and valid job or educational qualifications.

So for those of you who believe that its a hand out for blacks guess again

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:38 pm

Wow! It didn't take long for the

to reveal himself did it? That is who is really behind Prop 2 and "inequality" in the first place. I admit I am angry, but I don't want to call anybody names or say I hate anybody. I am intelligent enough to figure out that a lot of the name calling and hate is fueled by anger, disappointment as well as dissillusion on the part of some and relief on the part of others. No one wants to feel discriminated against and the point is...once you feel it...you DON'T LIKE IT! The bottom line is that there is disparity in this country and those who cannot see that a lot of it is racially based, then I feel sad for you. No, we can't just "get over it". Like another poster here wrote, you don't expect a veteran (which my father, who is a deceased veteran in the Marines and the Navy, as well as a Vietnam Vet was) to just get over a war do you? Why should we? We are the survivors of essentially a war. A war to survive a war to exist as human beings and to be treated with dignity as human beings and not to be treated as any fraction of a person, but a whole living, functioning human being with flesh, blood and (hopefully) a soul. That is what we are really trying to achieve in this society, but it is difficult when people choose NOT to acknowledge that we have been wronged in the first place. Maybe AA wasn't the "fix all", but what else do we have when people only care when THEY experience when we experience every day. I am not whining, but stating the facts. You can choose to ignore it, but it won't go away. We are NOT going back. We are moving on. And for those of you who think that this is the end or the beginning of the end for US, think again. We are better and stronger than YOU give us credit for. We have survived 400 years of slavery, we can survive the downfall of AA. GOD is watching and HE won't fail US!!!!! God Bless!!!!!

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:03 pm

WP 85006

but its like a very great black man told me

if you argue with a fool
they will bring you DOWN to there level
and beat you with experience....

He wrote this just for you....

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:57 pm

Soulgroove ... words fail me. Suffice it to say, you're a perfect illustration of why it was time for Prop 2. You're a shame to the race you claim to speak for. Try not to choke on your own hate.

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:52 pm

FunnY thing is.....you have no idea who or what my ancestors were or came from. You are probably sitting at the rescue mission on there computer because you don't have one of your own. Well you government check should be there soon. Don't give up hope. You can just eat your cheese and wait until McDonalds starts hiring. Maybe then you can make a better life for yourself instead of being a hooker turning tricks every night. No wonder your ass is broke. No one wants to f&$k your ugly ass. lol Later Nig!

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:31 pm