Defending Affirmative Action
Filed Friday, May 4, 2007 at 12:00 PM
A group of Missouri lawmakers are preparing to fight a potential ballot initiative anti-affirmative action groups are trying to put before voters in 2008 targeting colleges admission standards, employment opportunities and access to public contracts for minorities.
The Missourian reported last week that a group called The Missouri Civil Rights Initiative will be part of a “Super Tuesday for Equal Rights” campaign led by the American Civil Rights Institute, which also hopes to ban racial preferences in Colorado, Oklahoma and Arizona.
State Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, a Democrat from north St. Louis, is among those ready for the fight.
“Beneath the claim that ability and merit should be the only basis for advancement is the documented history of denial of opportunity to minorities and women that must be remedied,” El-Amin said in a statement.
According to El-Amin, Californian Ward Connelly, “the African-American face of the anti-affirmative action movement”, was in Missouri on April 24 to announce efforts to launch an initiative drive to eliminate affirmative action this state. Connelly helped put such a measure, Proposition 209, before California voters.
Assistant Senate Minority Leader Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, said protections to help women and minorities advance should be preserved.
“Achieving the maximum potential of society can only be done when all people are allowed to participate in the system,” Graham said.
“This country has made significant strides with the passage of civil rights legislation, but all of the goals of those landmark bills have not been met nor negated the legacy of centuries of discrimination and racism.”
El-Amin, Graham, and other legislators will hold a press conference on the anti-affirmative action proposal on Tuesday, May 8, at 9:00 a.m. in the State Capitol.