ACRI On The Ballot!

Both houses of the Arizona legislature have now approved the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, which will appear on the ballot in 2010!

If voters approve the measure, Arizona will join the voters of California, Washington, Michigan, and Nebraska, all of whom have amended their state constitutions to prohibit the state from discriminating against, or giving preference to, anyone based on race, ethnicity, or gender.

Once again, everyone owes Ward Connerly and Jennifer Gratz a debt of gratitude for their hard work on this issue.

Say What? (3)

  1. Mike Bertolone June 23, 2009 at 3:29 pm | | Reply

    Ward and Jennifer have really been at the forefront of this movement – hats of to them and everyone else involved in moving true equality under law forward.

  2. revisionist June 25, 2009 at 12:07 pm | | Reply

    This is great news, but I’m afraid the battle is at a stalemate even if there is a win in AZ. Reasons

    1. As the (very narrow) Nov. defeat of the Colorado initiative shows, there is substantial public support _for_ racial preferences.

    2. California’s 209 is the most widely ignored law in the nation (except for immigration law.) AG Jerry Brown is trying to invoke a tortured reading of the 14th Amendment to try to get it overturned. The Calif. legislature is considering a bill that would also overturn parts of 209 somehow deemed incompatible with the 14th amendment.

    3. Most of today’s immigrants, especially from Latin America, are very fond of racial preferences that benefit them. With 1.5 to 2 million new immigrants a year into the US, support for preferences can only increase.

  3. E June 29, 2009 at 9:33 am | | Reply

    The “disparate impact” of ignoring California’s Prop. 209, banning the use of race in admissions will be mainly on Asian Americans, as well as Asian immigrants and their children in admissions to the elite state colleges and professional schools. Prop. 209 is being violated every single day, especially in admissions to California’s medical schools, where the discrimination against Asian American applicants is even more pronounced than at the undergraduate levels, requiring them to meet a much higher bar for admissions, if they are even admitted at all with de facto anti-Asian quotas.

    Statistics on reverse discrimination against Asian Americans at the University of California , UC medical schools, UC law schools, the University of Michigan, and other states, please click on: http://home.sandiego.edu/~e_cook/

    Data from the AAMC (American Association of Medical Colleges) for U.S. Medical School Applicants 2005-2007 (3 years).

    1. An Asian American with a GPA of 2.8 to 2.99 and a MCAT score of 36 to 38 has a 36.8% chance of being admitted to a U.S. medical school.

    http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/MCATGPAgridAsian.pdf

    MCAT and GPA Grid for Applicants and Acceptees to U.S. Medical Schools who self-identified* as Asian, 2005 to 2007 (aggregated)

    2. A White with a GPA of 2.8 to 2.99 and a MCAT score of 36 to 38 has a 40.7% chance of being admitted to a U.S. medical school.

    http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/MCATGPAgridWHITE.pdf

    MCAT and GPA Grid for Applicants and Acceptees to U.S. Medical Schools who self-identified* as White, 2005 to 2007 (aggregated)

    3. An African American with a GPA of 2.8 to 2.99 and a MCAT score of 36 to 38 has a 100% chance of being admitted to a U.S. medical school.

    http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/MCATGPAgridBlack.pdf

    MCAT and GPA Grid for Applicants and Acceptees to U.S. Medical Schools who self-identified* as Black, 2005 to 2007 (aggregated)

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