Long-time readers will have noticed that I’ve never requested contributions on this site — to me or anyone else. I’m breaking that rule, or at least habit, today by reprinting a solicitation from one of the largely unsung heroes of the civil rights movement, Prof. Carl Cohen of the Univ. of Michigan. This letter was sent to the AADAP mailing list, and I am reprinting it here with my endorsement, whatever that may be worth.
2 October 2004
To Colleagues and Friends around the Country:
I write to ask for your help. College Admissions – at my university, and probably at yours – have been corrupted for many years by outright racial preference. Those who devise preferential systems are honorably motivated, but the conduct is wrong – a violation of the spirit of our constitution, and a plain violation of fundamental moral principles. I hope that you would seek, with me, a universal understanding that whatever criteria are appropriate for admission to a college or university, skin color is not among them. In a decent society there will be no preference by race.
This issue came to a head in the U. S. Supreme Court in the two Michigan cases (Grutter v. Bollinger, and Gratz v. Bollinger) in 2003. Blatant preference in undergraduate admission was held unconstitutional in Gratz, but hidden preference, ostensibly in the interest of diversity, was held in Grutter to be consistent with the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The upshot is that universities may now continue to give race preference, and they surely will do so.
In California and in Washington that is not permitted, however, because the people of those states have forbidden race preference by vote. We now hope, in Michigan, to achieve that same result. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) would, if adopted, amend the constitution of our state to prohibit the University of Michigan and all state universities, the state itself, and all other state agencies, from discriminating or granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.
The passage of MCRI is profoundly important for all those who oppose racial discrimination in every form and in every context. And the people of Michigan will surely approve its passage if only we can get the Initiative on the ballot in 2006. To do that we need hundreds of thousands of signatures, and we need them by January of 2005. As I write we are more than halfway to success, but reaching our goal is impossible without the employment of signature solicitors who must be paid. Getting the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on the ballot, in short, requires a good deal of money, more money than we now have.
Mine is an academic salary, but I have contributed thousands of dollars to this cause — as honorable as a public cause can be. Ward Connerly has generously contributed personal funds in very significant amount. In addition, the American Civil Rights Coalition has contributed mightily to our effort. I implore you to join us and help us now. If MCRI can receive $50, or $100, from a few hundred colleagues around the nation, we will surely succeed in gathering the needed signatures, and the MCRI will become a reality. We are nearly there, and we desperately need help for the last leg. I am not experienced in soliciting money, but I implore you – if you care about racial equality as I do, and if you believe as I do that giving preference on the basis of skin color (even when that is well intended) is wrong and damaging to all – to send a check, today, to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, P.O. Box 1398, Southgate, MI 48195. With all my heart I thank you.
…. Beneath my signature on this letter appears, for your full information, the two substantive paragraphs of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. The language is unambiguous, the objective is unmistakable. With your help we will put a permanent end to racial discrimination, and racial preference, in Michigan.
Receive my immensely grateful good wishes.
Respectfully yours,
Carl Cohen Professor of Philosophy The University of Michigan
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative To amend the state constitution by adding to article 1:
Civil Rights
(1) The University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and any other public college or university, community college, or school district shall not 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.
(2) The state shall not 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.
UPDATE
