Tensions are high in Michigan over a federal case that will determine whether an anti-affirmative action measure known as the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative will remain on that state’s November ballot. The MCRI would prohibit the use of race and gender preferences in university admissions and public hiring and contracting. A group opposing the measure, which calls itself By Any Means Necessary, claims that the MCRI’s proponents fraudulently obtained petition signatures by telling African-Americans and others that it would protect affirmative action. Proponents deny the allegation and say that it would demean democracy to remove the issue from the ballot. The judge says he will make a decision in short order to allow for the correct printing of election ballots.
This might be a new low for affirmative action supporters. In an attempt to deny the people of Michigan the chance to decide for themselves whether affirmative action should be used by the government in such things as hiring and contracting, opponents are accusing the other side of lying and in the process they wind up insulting African-Americans. The allegation that blacks only signed the petition because they were told it would help affirmative action implies: (a) the only way blacks would sign a petition on affirmative action is if it was in support of its use, and (b) blacks simply signed it rather than bothering to read what they were signing. These liberals cannot fathom that there may be African-Americans who do not want the “help” that preferences provide in the workplace and in school. They do not understand the concept of a person wanting to achieve something on his or her own without any kind of government help. So they assume that blacks must have been lied to and bought the lie. It is a pathetic argument, but then, what would you expect from a group that calls itself By Any Means Necessary? It is a wonder that anyone even believes their allegation with a name like that.
