Misrepresentations Of MCRI (Continued)

Khaled Beydoun, a native of Dearborn, Michigan, and graduate of the University of Michigan and UCLA law school, is the Affirmative Action Coordinator for the ACLU who is working full time to defeat the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. In an interview with Arab American News.com, he continues the unbroken string of misrepresentation that characterize all of the criticisms of MCRI that I have seen so far.

Here are some examples:

AA NEWS: What is affirmative action? How does it pertain to Wayne County and Michigan in general?

KB: Affirmative action looks to create equal opportunity for women, minorities, immigrants and other citizens left out for too long. It not only looks to open otherwise closed doors to these groups in higher education, but also employment, government contracts, outreach, health programs, and other publicly funded programs.

Corporations, government and non-profit organizations in Wayne County have long championed affirmative action programs for women and prominent minority communities, including Arab and African Americans. The so-called “Michigan Civil Rights Initiative” will be up for vote in November 2006. It is wealthy conservative California businessman Ward Connerly’s pet project. Despite its nice name, MCRI is neither Michigan’s initiative, nor for civil rights.

I suppose you can define “equal opportunity” so that so that, to you, it means helping some people and hindering others because of their race, but that view has never been widely held among the general population, nor should it be. But how can you deny that a petition campaign that garnered the signatures of over 500,000 Michiganders is not “Michigan’s initiative”? I guess you do that the same way you charge that a measure aimed at rooting out racial and ethnic discrimination is not “for civil rights.”

And where are those “otherwise closed doors”? Give me a break! Or better yet, describe the doors at UCLA (where Beydoun presumably knows his way around) or Berkeley that are “closed” to minorities because they aren’t given the preferences they formerly received.

Does Beydoun really believe corporations and non-profit organizations will be affected in any way by the passage of MCRI? If so, he should say why, inasmuch as the ballot language is limited to state agencies. Along the way, perhaps he could let us know how many “Arabs” have been given preferential admission to the University of Michigan, since to the best of my knowledge UM has never acknowledged that it gave preference to Arabs.

AA NEWS: What is the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative? Who is behind it?

KB: The “California Initiative,” or the MCRI, looks to abolish affirmative action and equal opportunity programs by rewriting the Michigan Constitution. It seeks to add an amendment to get rid of programs in employment, education, public health which make reference to gender, national origin, race, or color – even though these programs aim to get rid of discrimination in society. Ward Connerly and a group of clandestine businessman from California are funding and spearheading this campaign to undo the victories of the civil rights movement. They prefer the government does absolutely nothing to stop anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination and other forms of hatred. It is completely backwards.

MCRI would abolish only affirmative action programs that employ racial, ethnic, or gender preference. It would bar no “equal opportunity programs” that do not employ such preferences. It would “get rid of” no programs that merely “make reference” to gender, national origin, or race. The accusation that the backers of MCRI “prefer the government does absolutely nothing to stop anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination and other forms of hatred” is silly. They prefer that all anti-discrimination laws be vigorously enforced, though not just for Arabs and Muslims.

And speaking of Arabs and Muslims, which is not surprising in an Arab American news source, Beydoun really takes flight.

AA NEWS: Does MCRI relate to Arab-Americans?

KB: If it is passed, MCRI will be disastrous for our community.

It eliminates university scholarships awarded specifically to Arab-American students, financial-aid programs designed to help Arab-Americans, and college recruitment efforts geared to minority students, such as Arab-Americans. It also hurts Arab studies programs, such as the new Center for Arab-American Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn

MCRI goes after Arab-American education at the most basic levels, as well. It opposes publicly funded English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) programs tailored for the Arab-American community. There will be no more after-school tutoring programs for Arab-Americans in need of educational support.

This initiative could be seen as part of the general anti-Arab and anti-Muslim backlash. MCRI threatens academic departments committed to the understanding of the Near East, Arab American and Islamic Studies. It exposes public programs referencing “Islam,” “Arab” or “Middle Eastern” to court challenge and potential elimination. This threatens the few public institutions that promote understanding of our culture and countries.

Arab-American women will be hurt twice as bad by this. MCRI diminishes education and employment programs that increase opportunities for qualified women, erases programs that help women achieve equal pay for the same work as men, and gets rid of housing and lending programs that guarantee women are not discriminated against when applying for loans and mortgages.

It will make Michigan corporations and businesses less competitive in a diverse and global marketplace by driving talented minorities to other states. It also discourages both minority businesses and workers from coming to Michigan, meaning less opportunities for everyone.

On top of that, it will be much harder for Arab-owned businesses to do anything about discrimination they face from inspectors or in competition for government contracts.

To the best of my knowledge, every single assertion in the above diatribe is false.

• I don’t believe the state provides any scholarships limited to Arab Americans (if I’m wrong about this, someone clue me in), and MCRI would not affect private scholarships;
• MCRI would not hinder attempts to recruit Arabs, or anyone else.
• MCRI would have no effect on “Arab studies programs” or centers; it does not threaten “academic departments committed to the understanding of the Near East, Arab American and Islamic Studies”; it does not expose “public programs referencing “Islam,” “Arab” or “Middle Eastern” to court challenge and potential elimination”;
• MCRI would have no effect on ESL programs or after-school tutoring programs, for Arabs or anyone else;
• MCRI “could be seen as part of the general anti-Arab and anti-Muslim backlash” only by someone who is willfully blind, or who at least believes that a measure that would bar discrimination against Arabs based on their ethnicity is “anti-Arab and anti-Muslim.”
• “Arab-American women will be hurt twice as bad by” MCRI only if removing preferential treatment for all women somehow treats them twice as bad. The only “education and employment programs that increase opportunities for qualified women” that are “diminished” are those that extend gender preferences;
• MCRI would not discourage minority workers or businesses from coming to Michigan, first, because it does not affect business. But if it did discourage some workers who thought they deserved to be treated preferentially because of their race, that would be a net gain for other Michiganders.
• MCRI would not make it “much harder for Arab-owned businesses to do anything about discrimination they face from inspectors,” and the only way if would “competition for government contracts” more difficult is by requiring Arab-owned business to meet the same standards and compete on the same terms as every other business.

I would think the ACLU would be embarrassed by its representative spreading such blatant falsehoods. If Beydoun himself actually believes all this, which I doubt, then perhaps he is evidence that Michigan and UCLA really do lower both admission and graduation standards for Arabs.