No on California Prop. 54:
Connerly’s Information Ban 2003!

Anti-affirmative action activist Ward Connerly is back with a new California initiative - the so-called Racial Privacy Initiative. But this proposal has little to do with privacy and everything to do with hiding crucial information. At the heart of Connerly’s plan is an almost complete ban on state and local agencies compiling any information on race or ethnicity. It would ban such critical information as how many Latino students are graduating from high school, whether the state is making progress in minority contracting, or why African American women have the highest mortality rates from breast cancer.

The vision Connerly is pitching to voters is a “colorblind society” - but this seductive vision is dangerously shortsighted, say a host of opponents including leading environmental, education, and public health organizations, as well as civil rights groups. Opponents include the California Medical Association, the California Teachers Association, the AFL-CIO, the SEIU, NAACP, and others. including the ACLU. (For a complete list see the web site below)

Ward Connerly was the author of California Prop.209, which banned affirmative action in California and led to attacks on affirmative action around the nation. Now, he is going a step further, seeking to ban the information we need to challenge and to demonstrate problems with health, education, and governmental programs.

This ban would stop us from keeping track of racial profiling, would block enforcement of civil rights laws, and would hide important information needed for school accountability and improvement. It would ban university researchers, and others, from even collecting the information on pubic programs. Unwilling to improve the schools, health care, and other public services, Connerly and the Republican Party want to bury the evidence so that we can not demonstrate when these programs fail.

If passed, this ban would eliminate the only realistic means of demonstrating the ongoing practice of racial, ethnic and language discrimination in California. Since the passage of Prop.209, affirmative action is no longer legal in California. This initiative would make anti discrimination suits almost impossible to win.

This information ban is a part of the radical right wing attempt to roll back civil rights in this country. The Republican Party and Connerly's "American Civil Rights Foundation" have spent years managing a message to shape public opinion against Affirmative Action. Connerly coordinates his work with well funded conservative foundations such as the Bradley and Richard Scaife Foundations and Grover Norquist.

The Republican Party and a radical right wing is using this campaign as a wedge issue to divide White people and people of color. Winning this campaign will be, in part, about who has the most effective message and how we deliver our message.

If passed on Oct.7,2003, this initiative would endanger the health, safety, and education of all of our communities. Please help us to defeat Prop. 54.

DSA's Anti Racism and Latino Commissions have been active in prior campaigns including Prop.187, 209, and 227. Please support our efforts to defeat Prop.54 this Fall.

You must be registered to vote.

For information on this campaign , and how to get involved, please go to http://www.informedcalifornia.org