Poll: Mich. split on affirmative action

[journalist3072]

Poll: Mich. split on affirmative action

33 minutes ago

DETROIT - A ballot measure that would scrap many of Michigan's affirmative action programs is running about even in a new poll published Monday, with 41 percent of likely voters saying they would approve it and 43 percent opposed.

Sixteen percent had yet to decide how they would vote on the Nov. 7 ballot proposal, called the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

Michigan took a prominent role in the national debate over affirmative action in 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld general affirmative action admissions policy at the University of Michigan Law School but struck down the university's undergraduate affirmative action formula as too rigid because it awarded points based on race.

One of the plaintiffs in the undergraduate admissions lawsuit was Jennifer Gratz, who now serves as executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

Rest of article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/ap_on_el_st_lo/affirmative_action_poll

Michigan DUers: Please cast your vote on this important issue on election day!

[Blaq Dem]

1. No one can have the same kind of Affirm. Act. as rich white males

And GW Bush is its poster boy.

Personally, I haven't gotten a damn thing from Affirmative Action despite being more educated and qualified than most anyone in this country in my field. I don't see what people have to complain about. Blacks still have a much higher unemployment rate than whites. Maybe it's a boost for white women in general. At the end of the day rich white males get whatever they want.

They shouldn't scrap MI's affirmative action programs unless they're willing to scrap legacy too.

[Stepup2]

2. Still have a long way to go

Yeah, I hear you regarding the legacy, but how do you measure that? This privilege often runs under radar; masked by private conversations or phone calls which function as the magic words which open the doors to jobs and other potlatch doled out those deemed as "meritorious" of the legacy...

At least affirm action programs are out in the open, subject to this sort of scrutiny.

And yeah, I am a white woman who has benefited to a LARGE extent due to affim action.

[journalist3072]

3. Here's the thing that amazes me today

You have a lot of conservatives who will bastardize Dr. King's words from his "I Have a Dream" speech, and use those words to say that if Dr. King were alive today, he would be AGAINST affirmative action.

Specifically, they cite the part in the speech where he talks about wanting his children to be judged by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin. And they say those words are evidence that Dr. King would be against affirmative action.

What they don't tell you, is that he believed in corrective action and corrective programs.

He once said "A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro."

And I agree that legacies are nothing but affirmative action. Letting someone into a university or college simply because their great-grandpa or father went there, is a form of affirmative action. But you don't here the GOP complaining about that.