A large group of community activist, religious and labor leaders, students and educators met at the Community Christian church earlier this month to hear speakers talk about the effects the proposed “Civil Rights Initiative” would have on the community and discuss the need to keep it off the ballot in Missouri.

  Let's get something straight right off the bat.  The Missouri Civil Rights Initiative is a political tool being used to get right-wing-voters off their derrieres to vote in the upcoming election.  The initiative is attempting to repeal Affirmative Action here in the State of Missouri. I would liken it to the 2004 initiative to ban gay marriage.  Apparently Republicans figure the only thing that scares rich white republicans more than gays getting married, are blacks and women being granted equal access to education, housing and employment.

  Ward Connerly the man responsible for introducing the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative is a former University of California Regent and the leading spokesperson for the well-financed, corporate-backed, far-right-wing national campaign to end affirmative action.  He is also president of the “American Civil Rights Institute” (ACRI) and “American Civil Rights Coalition”(ACRC).  The “American Civil Rights Institute is funded primarily by ultra-conservative Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee.

Connerly's organization describes itself this way on its web site:  "The American Civil Rights Institute is a national civil rights organization created to educate the public about racial and gender preferences. Based in Sacramento, California, ACRI's initial focus is on three areas:   Assisting organizations in other states with their efforts to educate the public about racial and gender preferences, assisting federal representatives with public education on the issue, and monitoring implementation and legal action on California's Proposition 209."

   Following similar initiatives that repealed affirmative action in California, Michigan and Washington, he has targeted five states for this year's November ballot - Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. Targeting states with relatively low numbers of people of color - and undoubtedly relying on the longstanding effectiveness of racial scapegoating, particularly in hard economic times, Connerly might very well succeed in the absence of a determined and coordinated campaign to quash his efforts.

  Opponents of this initiative who were in attendance included the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO, the Greater Kansas City Building Trades and the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce are leaving nothing for chance.  The event was chaired by Bridgette Williams, president of the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and Pete Levy, president of the Greater Kansas City Area Chamber of Commerce. Yes politics does make great bedfellows. Among those in attendance speaking out against the initiative were Steve Dunn, Chairman of J.E. Dunn Construction and Garry Kemp, Business Manager of the Greater Kansas City Building and Construction Trades Council.

  The opposition to this initiative was well supported by documented results of the 1996 California initiative (Proposition 209) that removed Affirmative Action in California. Connerly drafted Proposition 209, which amended the California Constitution to bar Affirmative Action in education, employment, and contracting for all state institutions.

 The Jewish Council for Public Affairs publication on the Internet summarizes in its Race, Ethnicity & Public Policy statement the reasons why Affirmative Action is still relevant:  The legal condition of blacks in America has vastly improved since World War II. The size of the black middle class has increased substantially, and research reveals steady improvement in white attitudes. Yet negative racial stereotypes continue to underlie subtle discrimination, influencing how people view and treat each other.

For a significant segment of low-income blacks living in conditions of concentrated poverty, and for impoverished members of other minority groups, barriers to full inclusion in American society remain high. In isolated communities of concentrated poverty, these individuals lack access to education and job training opportunities and to networks of social mobility and support necessary to advance.

Instances of systematic hiring discrimination and problems in the area of job promotion continue. African Americans remain inadequately connected to essential networks that white Americans take for granted. The Latino and Asian American communities also confront discrimination, in part based on accent, language or stereotypical preconceptions about capabilities and work styles. So long as discrimination persists, affirmative action programs, properly structured, will remain necessary.

Quality education, accessible to all students, is vital to providing every American with the skills needed to work effectively. Moreover, public schools play a central role in teaching common civic values, fostering tolerance, respect, and appreciation for diversity. The nation must move forcefully to address serious inadequacies in public schools, especially urban schools. Money, properly targeted, can have a significant impact. Yet disparities continue in annual per pupil expenditure between the poorest (generally minority) and the wealthiest (generally white) school districts.

  This analysis as well as many others support the idea that affirmative action is not only important but also necessary.  As the Michigan vote highlighted, affirmative action remains a polarizing issue in American life. Over all, Proposition 2 won a comfortable 58 percent majority, but the divide between male and female voters, and whites and blacks, was far greater.

    The idea that racism and sexism are over is greatly exaggerated. CNN reported after the Michigan election that a survey of 1,955 voters as they left polling places showed that almost two-thirds of the white voters questioned wanted to end affirmative action, compared with only about one in seven black voters. And while almost two-thirds of men supported the proposition, only a slight majority of women did. Michigan is roughly 81 percent white and 14 percent black.