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Deception?

The New York Times has a surprisingly fair and balanced article this morning on ?charges of deception? leveled at the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative.

Prominently displayed is picture of a black woman, Freddie Whitney with a caption stating that she ?signed what she was told was an antidiscrimination petition in this Denver parking lot.? The article begins:

DENVER ? Freddie Whitney was walking out of a King Soopers supermarket here this winter when she was approached by three young men.

They politely asked if she was against discrimination and, if so, if she would sign a petition that would legally end the practice in the state. After scanning it briefly, Ms. Whitney, a 78-year-old African-American, signed it.

A few weeks later, Ms. Whitney says, she was shocked to learn from a local newspaper that she had unwittingly lent her support to a ballot measure called the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative that seeks to eliminate state programs that give preferential treatment to minorities and women....

?My reaction was, ?Oh, my God, what have I done??? Ms. Whitney said. ?I have children and grandchildren who have benefited from affirmative action.?

Another Coloradan quoted in the article who claims deception :

For Dara Burwell, 25, one of dozens of people who contacted Colorado Unity after signing the petition, the realization that she had inadvertently lent her support to the measure was ?horrifying,? she said

Ms. Burwell, who is black and has actively supported affirmative action programs in the past, said she had been approached on the steps of a downtown library by a young black man who spoke of justice for minorities. Ms. Burwell said she had signed the petition thinking it was ?a standard nondiscrimination clause.?

?I?m angry, because this is so deceptive,? she said. ?I?ve contributed to get a measure on the ballot that stands for everything I don?t believe in.?

Inadvertence? Yes. Mistake? Yes. But deception? They?ve got to be kidding, as is anyone who takes the deception complaint seriously.

The Colorado Civil Rights Initiative that these citizens were asked to sign clearly states that it would prohibit the state ?from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.? Ms. Burwell?s initial thought ? that this is ?a standard nondiscrimination clause? ? is correct. That?s exactly what it is. The problem, obviously, is not that she was deceived, but that she does not believe in prohibiting discrimination. She wants the state to retain and continue to use the power to discriminate in favor of the group to which she belongs and against other groups. (That so many people, like Ms. Burwell, no longer believe in prohibiting racial discrimination is what I think is truly ?horrifying.?)

Ms. Whitney also thought she was ?against discrimination,? and so signed the petition. She, too, was not deceived in any way. Her ?Oh, my God, what have I done?? second thought was based entirely on her belated recognition that she and her family ?have benefited from affirmative action,? i.e., from receiving preferential treatment because of their race.

One can understand Ms. Whitney?s and Ms. Burwell?s discomfort at realizing that signing what is in fact ?a standard nondiscrimination clause? lent their support to prohibiting all discrimination, even discrimination they would like to see continued, but that understanding lends no credence whatsoever to their frivolous charges that the petition they signed is deceptive.

Finally (or almost finally), Ms. Whitney wants to preserve racial preferences because she has ?children and grandchildren who have benefited? from it. I wonder how old her grandchildren are. Does Ms. Whitney believe, do other supporters of race preferences believe, that her children and grandchildren should continue to benefit from preferential treatment throughout their lives? Should their own ?children and grandchildren? inherit their parents? and grandparents? privilege of being treated better than others by the state because of their race and pass it on to their progeny forever? (No, dummy! Only until the ?playing field is level.?)

I began by saying that the New York Times article is surprisingly fair and balanced ? it even quotes Ward Connerly fairly! ? but I don?t want to go overboard. It also presents a picture of Connerly with a caption stating that the anti-discrimination measure he supports ?seeks to end affirmative action in Colorado.? As supporters of the measure in Colorado and in every other state where it has been introduced have stated, accurately, time and again (most of them quoted here), it doesn?t. It would bar only affirmative action programs that employ preferential treatment based on race.

Full post as published by Discriminations on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).