I just read “Some Arizona University Programs Threatened by Proposed Ban on Affirmative Action” by Peter Schmidt (author of Color and Money), and it reminded me of a few questions I asked of a few Black and Hispanic lawyers during a recent meeting. Here are paraphrased versions of the questions I asked.
1) Why would a single Arizonian want or need Ward Connerly to help lead a statewide political campaign to rid Arizona of our affirmative action policies or to change our affirmative action policies?
2) Do Arizonians really need Ward Connerly, someone who is not an Arizonian, to tell us what we need to do with respect to affirmative action?
3) Wouldn’t Arizonians who would follow Ward Connerly’s lead in 2008 look like incompetents who needed an outsider’s help or cowards who were too afraid to attack Arizona’s affirmative action policies until Ward Connerly rolled through?
4) Is Connerly coming to Arizona to help us govern our state better? If so, who invited him and why did they feel we needed him?
5) How could I get the opportunity to debate Ward Connerly live, like Michael Eric Dyson did in 1998 (see Chapter 4, “Myths, Distortions, and History” in Michael Eric Dyson’s Debating Race with Michael Eric Dyson)? I do believe I could make Connerly appear quite unqualified to advise any well-educated, clear-thinking, and fair-minded Arizonian. And, I do believe that I would argue from legal facts, legal theory, historical facts, social scientific facts, leading social science theories, and moral theories even more persuasively than Dr. Dyson did during his debate with Connerly.
In general, I support Arizona’s affirmative action policies. I believe they do us a great deal of good and no harm. However, if a few hundred thousand of my fellow Arizonians really wanted to change or eliminate our current policies for what they believed were culturally-impartial, apolitical, economic, and meritocratic reasons, then I would listen attentively to the smartest proposals from other Arizonians who have invested in OUR Arizona, who raised their families in OUR Arizona, and who care primarily about what affirmative action has done to or for OUR Arizona. I would listen to their proposals carefully and do my best to determine if their proposed policies would improve OUR Arizona economically, socially, or culturally. And I would be disappointed if any decent Arizona politicians or highly respected Arizona institutions or organizations teamed with Ward Connerly in 2008, because I believe doing so would indicate that they needed a guy like Ward Connerly, someone who probably only sees Arizona as a small piece of a much larger campaign, to help them promote their anti-affirmative action agendas. That would make them look politically pitiful in my opinion. The best Arizonians, the ones I agree with and the ones I don’t, would neither need nor request Ward Connerly’s leadership for anything related to how we govern OUR Arizona.
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Ed, are those lawyers you met with organizing to take on Ward Connerly next year? If so, how could law students get involved?
Wardell is the deliverable work product of precisely that northern california element of the U.S. Establishment that has had us in its eugenic crosshairs for generations.
He’s already done his dirty work in Missouri and the repeal of state affirmative action is on the November 2008 ballot.
Mark:
The folks I talked with were talking about organizing in Tucson or teaming with other organizations. One of them plans to take 2008 off to focus on this. I also know some non-lawyer folks at UA who plan to organize. There’s a lot of good intentions but also a lot of disconnection and few resources. Nonetheless, at this stage there are some folks who’ve begun to organize in Phoenix, but I don’t know what their plans or resources are. I’ll check into things more after finals. And, I’ll send you an email with contact info for organizers in Maricopa County and down here in early 2008.
Draft Text of Arizona Civil Rights Initiative
A Few Key Primer Articles for Arizonians
“Initiative would bar affirmative action programs”
—Howard Fischer (Capitol Media Services), East Valley Tribune
“Foes of anti-preference initative ask voters to defeat effort (with audio)”
—Howard Fischer (Capitol Media Services), Arizona Daily Star
“Affirmative action under fire”
—Anne Ryman and Matthew Benson, The Arizona Republic
“Arizona is not colorblind yet”
—Booker T. Evans, The Arizona Republic
“Initiative will ensure equality”
—Max McPhail, The Arizona Republic
Who Is/Are The Arizona Civil Rights Initiative?
Arizona Civil Rights Initiative Website
Section a) of the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative Proposal asserts that middle-class and upper-class White Arizonians, specifically middle-class and upper-class White male Arizonians, should get no gender-based or race-based preferences in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.
A Few Questions for Fair-Minded Arizonians to Ponder
1. Do middle-class and upper-class White Arizonians, specifically White male Arizonians, receive such preferences now?
2. Have they received such preferences for several decades/generations?
3. If they do or have received such preferences for several decades/generations, how do they and how did they receive these preferences?
4. If they do or did receive these preferences, how do or did they and their families benefit from these privileges legally, economically, or politically?
5. If they and their families benefit or benefitted legally, economically, or politically from receiving these preferences, are the long-run effects of these legal, economic, and political benefits things fair-minded Arizonians can or should account for in this debate?
6. If fair-minded Arizonians can or should account for these benefits, how can or should we account for them in our equal opportunity-focused, meritocracy-focused, culture-respecting, gender-respecting, and race-respecting laws and policies without using gender-based or race-based preferences better than we already do with our current affirmative action policies?