Affirmative action battle brews anew in Michigan

It's a cold time of year to be out collecting signatures. But as Michigan's affirmative action debate heats up once again, that's exactly what opponents of racial preferences in hiring and school admissions are doing.

Last week, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) launched a petition drive to let voters decide whether to ban such preferences by state institutions. If the group gathers 317,757 signatures by July 6, its proposed amendment to the state constitution will appear on November's ballot.

Opposition to the campaign has been loud and swift. Protesters gathered at the press conference announcing the drive Monday, and within 24 hours a broad coalition of state business, labor, civic, and religious leaders were calling on constituents not to sign the petition.

"This has been a divisive issue for Michigan all along," says Brig. Gen. (ret.) Michael Rice, executive director of Citizens for a United Michigan, the group that opposes MCRI. "It's only going to get more divisive from here."

MCRI's campaign is bankrolled and advised by Ward Connerly, a familiar figure in affirmative action cases nationwide. In 1996, Mr. Connerly, chairman of the Sacramento-based American Civil Rights Coalition, sponsored California's Proposition 209, which banned affirmative action programs in hiring, contracting, and public school admissions. Two years later, Connerly successfully promoted Initiative 200 in Washington State to similar effect.

The language of the Michigan petition is nearly identical to these efforts. Adapting wording from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it forbids the state to "discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."

Borrowing language from the Civil Rights Act is especially troubling to those who oppose MCRI's efforts.

"That [wording] is just conscious, creative, shameful duplicity," says Luke Massie, national cochair of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality by Any Means Necessary (BAMN).

Just look at 209's track record, Mr. Massie says. Minority enrollment in California's more elite public universities fell markedly after 1998 when the proposition took effect.

(These schools did, however, rush to find other ways to boost minority enrollment, including adding outreach programs, expanding admissions criteria, and automatically admitting the top 4 percent of public high school students. By 2002, minority enrollment at these schools was showing improvement.)

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