Affirmative Action Not Deat Yet
By Yvette Felarca, Hoku Jeffrey, and Ronald Cruz
BAMN
To the Editor,
On Monday, December 2, the US Supreme Court announced that it would hear the two University of Michigan affirmative action cases, _Gratz v. Bollinger_ and _Grutter v. Bollinger_, at the end of March or beginning of April 2003. We write as intervening student defendants in _Grutter_, the case involving the U-M Law School.
These two cases are a watershed for race relations in America. No aspect of our national society will be left untouched.
A victorious defense of affirmative action at the high court now will open up the possibility of reversing the setbacks that have occurred here in California, across the South and everywhere affirmative action and K-12 desegregation plans have been overturned. With a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court, we can open up a new period of progress toward integration and equality in American education. We can begin to make a reconciliation between the segregated, unequal reality of our education system and the hope and pride that the overwhelming majority of Americans of all races feel in the prospect of integration and equality.
A defeat would eliminate affirmative action and with it, every policy and program designed to offset the effects of racism and sexism in any and every context. More than that, if the US Supreme Court bans affirmative action across the country, it would signal a generalized move backward throughout our society. Attacks on civil liberties, freedom of speech and basic rights that we take for granted would follow.
The U.S. Supreme Court is now a very conservative body, but we can still win with a massive civil rights march planned for the day the court hears the cases at the end of March or beginning of April. The victory for affirmative action in the U-M Law School case at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals followed a spirited march of thousands through the cold, rainy streets of Cincinnati, Ohio.
To maintain, as Hanan Eisenman of the UC administration does, that "because of Proposition 209, whatever decision the court makes will not affect UC admission policies in any way," is the product of a parochial underestimation of the far-reaching significance of the Michigan cases. The U.S. Supreme Court is the high court of the whole United States. California will be just as subject to the federal law now as Alabama was when Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954. If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in these two key cases, Proposition 209 and the other measures of the same spirit across the country would be so many dead letters.
For this reason, supporters of affirmative action and integration in California have a great deal at stake in the outcome of the two University of Michigan cases. We appeal to all progressive people to help organize for the march on Washington four months from now.
Sincerely,
Yvette Felarca, Hoku Jeffrey, and Ronald Cruz
UC-Berkeley Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
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