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Copyright 2002
The Student Life
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| Prop
54: Not Colorblind, Color Dumb |
The fine folks here at The Student Life
are against racism, and we generally applaud efforts to diminish
racism on both an institutional and individual level. The fine
folks here at The Student Life, even if we were to buy into
Ward Connerly’s rhetoric about Proposition 54’s
intention to diminish racism, believe that Proposition 54 is
a terrible idea.
Proposition 54, the Classification by Race, Ethnicity, Color,
or National Origin Initiative (CRECNO), written by Ward Connerly
(the man who brought us Proposition 209 – which abolished
affirmative action in state and local government and publicly
funded institutions in California – in 1996) will be on
the ballot for October 7 election.
Proponents claim the measure will create a “colorblind”
society by ending “classification” of individuals
by race, ethnicity, color or national origin by state and local
government offices and the organizations they fund (e.g. public
universities, community colleges, and businesses with state
and local government business contracts).
Translation: data collection of racial information and grouping
information by race or ethnicity will be illegal (with certain
exemptions), and this, in turn, will end racism in California.
The fine folks here at The Student Life are extremely
concerned, first and foremost, about any proposal that claims
to solve societal problems by denying people access to information.
Moreover, call us cynical, but if the state government can make
racism disappear by simply ceasing to explore the racial dimensions
of societal problems, we are shocked that it cannot balance
its budget.
The effects of this initiative are numerous and varied. Broadly
speaking, organizations cannot collect racial data to examine
social issues. Thus, Proposition 54 is especially detrimental
to the healthcare community (and us, the patients) which relies
on ethnic statistical information to prevent disease and ensure
healthcare for groups disproportionately affected by particular
diseases. While the initiative does provide a one sentence exemption
stating that, “Otherwise lawful classification of medical
research subjects and patients shall be exempt,” the California
Medical Association, California Nurses Association, California
Primary Care Association, American Cancer Society, Kaiser Permanente
and the UCLA School of Public Health denounce the initiative’s
so-called medical exemption, which they called dangerously misleading.
According to Dr. Jack Lewin, CEO of the California Medical Association,
“What [Ward Connerly] calls ‘medical research subjects
and patients’ is in reality a miniscule number of people
participating in a small number of studies and surveys. The
vast majority of vital health information will still be kept
out of the hands of the medical professionals who use it to
save lives.”
Additionally, remedying social ills such as educational inequality
would be made far more difficult with the passage of Proposition
54, since it limits the kind of racial statistics that can be
collected on students. Although the federal government requires
schools to report test scores and high school graduation rates
for racial groups and colleges and universities to report the
number of students who enroll from each racial group, that information
only leads to identifying when problems exist, not why they
exist. When discrepancies in school performance and college
admission arise among racial groups, we will no longer be able
to determine which schools are attended by certain racial groups.
Thus, we will not know if certain racial groups attend more
schools which provide or deny qualified teachers, decent school
facilities, high quality academic coursework, extra support
programs, or the chance to prepare for college. We will not
be able to verify the fairness of college admissions practices,
or whether all groups of students have access to student services,
financial aid, and other programs in higher education. Californians
will know what is going wrong, but not why – short of
speculation. Denying social scientists, health professionals,
and other organizations access to racial information that will
help them try to solve problems and help California residents
is absurd. The only aspect more absurd than this prohibition
is the idea that it will end racism in California.
The fine folks here at The Student Life are not experts,
but we are voters and we are concerned citizens. We strongly
encourage our readers to vote NO on Proposition 54. Even more,
we encourage them to take this initiative very seriously. Do
some research on both sides of the issue, make an informed decisions,
and then get out and vote.
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