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Now, we sit back and wait for female professionals and entrepreneurs in Michigan to say, "Oops. We're a minority, aren't we? What have we just done?"
----- Original Message -----
From: Aggo Akyea <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2006 10:11 am
Subject: Proposal 2 in Michigan will nix Affirmative Action
To: [log in to unmask]
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> Affirmative action ban OK'd
>
> Michigan 3rd state to nix preferential treatment
>
> BY SUZETTE HACKNEY
> DETRIOT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
>
> November 8, 2006
>
> 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 [log in to unmask]
> Staff writers Marisol Bello and Tina Lam contributed to this report.
>
> Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.
>
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