Jennifer Gratz on "Off the Record" Part 2

Debating Proposal 2: The Affirmative Action Ban.

Arguing for the proposal is Jennifer Gratz, executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative; arguing against is David Hecker, president of the Michigan Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel. Moderated by Tim Skubick.

PROPOSAL 06-2
A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO BAN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROGRAMS THAT GIVE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT TO GROUPS OR INDIVIDUALS BASED ON THEIR RACE, GENDER, COLOR, ETHNICITY OR NATIONAL ORIGIN FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION OR CONTRACTING PURPOSES

The proposed constitutional amendment would:

- Ban public institutions from using affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on their race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes. Public institutions affected by the proposal include state government, local governments, public colleges and universities, community colleges and school districts.

- Prohibit public institutions from discriminating against groups or individuals due to their gender, ethnicity, race, color or national origin. (A separate provision of the state constitution already prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin.)

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Jennifer
• Gratz
• Proposal
• Affirmative
• Action
• MIchigan
• Civil
• Rights
• Initiative
• David
• Hecker
• Ward
• Connerly

[rjslade]

Ms. Gratz' "56%" in favor was quite prescient...actual was 58% in favor.

[MultiSmartass1]

@1453074 Because they care nothing about students of color and are in fact against them.

The word fairness used in this context is nothing but a code word for white entitlement.

Anytime some white privilege is percieved to be altered or waning.

Keep in mind who runs this society.

Forget Obama, the Congress is overwhelmingly white as is the Fortune 500 coporate boards and other centers of power.

Black people run nothing in this society.

End AA and you add to keeping non-whites down.

[MultiSmartass1]

@karateman232 In this society, Black does equal poor at the least working class and white does equal rich or at least middle class.

Race and class go together in this country-one is not seperate from the other.

This woman was another resentful failure who couldn't get into the college she wanted.

She's a loser because this is the act of a loser.

The facts is she resents any non-white person gaining any shred of opportunity.

Otherwise , why do this?

[karateman232]

@statelybird3 Think about what you are saying. You are talking about SOCIO-ECONOMIC status, not race. White DOES NOT EQUAL rich, just as black DOES NOT EQUAL poor. And of course that's where she started speaking out against Affirmative Action. That's where it affected her initially.

[Gary190tube]

she's a hero for speaking out against racism.

[ddchoidbx275]

Jennifer Gratz is my new hero

[statelybird3]

Yeah, well, I'm a Michigan voter and I voted not to get rid of AA---I don't know how you can call AA discrimination when it only picks out a certain select number of people of color to get into colleges. Basically, I don't know why Jennifer Gratz had to get rid of AA int he state of Michigan just because SHE didn't get to go to the college SHE wanted to. And, like Tim Wise said, it's funny how she never made a big deal about he fact that white kids with rich relatives could get in just as quick.

[ap9386]

If Asians can succeed without affirmative action, why can't any other minority?

[1453074]

I wonder why people like Jennifer Gratz fight for this kind of thing until the numbers of white students on college campuses go up and then do nothing to increase the acceptance of people of color. They never do anything like economic affirmative action that they say, they would stand for. They just like to leave schools in the situation that UC Berkeley and UCLA is in, which is mostly white.

[RCHorn7]

The Union guy came off as some sort of a bully. Really funny how he is trying to defend the indefensible. Affirmative Action is discrimination no matter how you try to define it. Thank goodness the voters of Michigan saw through the bullying tactics of the Fringe Left. If only such a proposal came to the State of Texas, it would pass overwhelmingly.