Commotion clouds Connerly event
Caitlin Dean
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: News
Intense opposition to the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative began before Ward Connerly, advocate of the initiative, even arrived on campus.
Truman College Republicans, under the direction of MoCRI Executive Director Tim Asher, collected 50 to 60 signatures on a petition to put the initiative on the November 2008 ballot, junior Courtney Robbins said. The Tuesday before Connerly came to speak, College Republicans could not find the signatures or their large poster, which they stored overnight in their CSI mailbox. Robbins said the group assumes someone took the signatures and does not expect their return.
"Whoever took it obviously doesn't have a lot of sympathy for the cause that we're pushing for," Robbins said. "We did try to collect some signatures the night of the event to make up for some of the lost signatures."
Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, said he spoke last Thursday with the intention of educating and informing audience members about the initiative. The initiative aims to eliminate discrimination against or preferential treatment of individuals or groups based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the areas of public employment, public education and public contracting, Connerly said. He clarified that the initiative does not use the term "affirmative action."
"We tend to think of [affirmative action] only in the context of it helping on the basis of race, but affirmative action comes in many forms," Connerly said. "First of all, it's a non-discrimination policy, and we don't want to eliminate that. ... What it eliminates is preferential treatment of anybody on the basis of those five prohibitive factors in the three areas."
Connerly repeatedly said socioeconomic factors create different conditions that call for a need for affirmative action.
"Give the help to those who need it, not on the basis of the way somebody was born or their skin color," he said.
Connerly said he used a paper submission question-and-answer system to save time and prevent questions from becoming personal statements, but audience members expressed disdain.
Truman College Republicans, under the direction of MoCRI Executive Director Tim Asher, collected 50 to 60 signatures on a petition to put the initiative on the November 2008 ballot, junior Courtney Robbins said. The Tuesday before Connerly came to speak, College Republicans could not find the signatures or their large poster, which they stored overnight in their CSI mailbox. Robbins said the group assumes someone took the signatures and does not expect their return.
"Whoever took it obviously doesn't have a lot of sympathy for the cause that we're pushing for," Robbins said. "We did try to collect some signatures the night of the event to make up for some of the lost signatures."
Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, said he spoke last Thursday with the intention of educating and informing audience members about the initiative. The initiative aims to eliminate discrimination against or preferential treatment of individuals or groups based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the areas of public employment, public education and public contracting, Connerly said. He clarified that the initiative does not use the term "affirmative action."
"We tend to think of [affirmative action] only in the context of it helping on the basis of race, but affirmative action comes in many forms," Connerly said. "First of all, it's a non-discrimination policy, and we don't want to eliminate that. ... What it eliminates is preferential treatment of anybody on the basis of those five prohibitive factors in the three areas."
Connerly repeatedly said socioeconomic factors create different conditions that call for a need for affirmative action.
"Give the help to those who need it, not on the basis of the way somebody was born or their skin color," he said.
Connerly said he used a paper submission question-and-answer system to save time and prevent questions from becoming personal statements, but audience members expressed disdain.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Jose J. Soto
posted 4/03/08 @ 9:57 AM CST
When will affirmative action, equity, and diversity initiatives as tools for social justice become unnecessary, unwarranted, and anachronistic?
Efforts to eliminate affirmative action as a tool for attaining equal opportunity and social justice are current and active in five states (AZ, CO, MO, NE, and OK). (Continued…)
Mary Pollock, Michigan
posted 4/03/08 @ 10:30 AM CST
When pressed about it, Connerly says that he is opposed to affirmative action on the basis of legacy and donor relationship to public universities. These account for a greater number of subjective college admissions than race- or gender-based "preferences. (Continued…)
Ryan
posted 4/03/08 @ 6:10 PM CST
"There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. (Continued…)
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