In November voters in the Wolverine State will decide whether to approve the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot measure banning racial preferences by government agencies, including public educational institutions. Similar measures have won approval in California and Washington, both more liberal-leaning states than Michigan, so one would expect the MCRI would have a pretty good chance of passing.
Not surprisingly, the civil rights establishment opposes the Civil Rights Initiative, as the Associated Press reports:
In blunt and passionate tones, officials at a major NAACP fundraiser that drew 10,000 people blasted a ballot initiative that aims to restrict affirmative action programs in Michigan.
"On behalf of the city of Detroit, I say, 'Bring it on,' " Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said at the 51st annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner on Sunday. "If you want a fight, there is one waiting for you right here." . . .
"There will be affirmative action here today," Kilpatrick said. "There will be affirmative action here tomorrow and there will be affirmative action in our state forever."
This puts Kilpatrick at odds with the U.S. Supreme Court, which, although it approved some of the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), also stated that "25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary." That deadline is now only 22 years, one month and three weeks away.
More curious is Kilpatrick's choice of slogans. "Bring it on"? That's how losers talk. The mayor may as well inquire as to the location of the outrage or opine about the riskiness of the scheme.
Even worse is that "affirmative action forever" line, an echo of--of all people--George Wallace. In his 1963 Inaugural Address Alabama's then-governor declared:
In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.
It didn't quite work out that way. Eighteen months later, the Civil Rights Act was the law of the land. The Wallace-Kilpatrick parallel illustrates a point we made in January:
During the decades between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Act, white Southerners were extreme political outliers. Much of their political energy was invested in defending a system of racial discrimination that privileged them. They voted Democratic in overwhelming proportions, sometimes approaching 90%, even during periods when Republicans were the dominant party nationwide. . . . The political behavior of white Southerners then is remarkably similar to that of black Americans today.
Still, it seems odd for Kilpatrick to adopt the rhetoric of an avowed segregationist. Why not instead modify Martin Luther King: "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged by the color of their skin, but not by the content of their character"?