No Racist Fraud in Michigan Elections
Stop the Attack on Affirmative Action
Defend Grutter v. Bollinger
March and Rally
Thursday, October 27, 2005
12:00 PM starting on the U of M Diag
Followed by Mass Organizing Meeting
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
> The Fight So Far Against MCRI's
Racially-Targeted Fraud
On Thursday, October 27, the new civil rights movement will march and rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor - the place of the victorious US Supreme Court defense of affirmative action in Grutter v. Bollinger. On October 27, the movement will march to stop fraud against black voters being used to perpetrate a racist attack - we march to stop the resegregation of higher education, defend the Grutter v. Bollinger victory and realize the promise of Brown v. Board of Education. Join this effort. Our society is at a tipping point - your voice is important.
Sound the alarm - tell your friends, family and neighbors. The opponents of affirmative action used racially-targeted fraud to deceive black voters in Michigan into signing on to the attack on affirmative action. Virtually every black voter who signed the petition to get Ward Connerly's so-called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on the ballot was deceived into thinking they were signing a petition for affirmative action, rather than the truth, which is that they were signing a proposal that aims to outlaw all affirmative action.
Spread the word. The racists have used lies and fraud to make attacks on civil rights in the past - we must not let them get away with it this time.
The new civil rights movement must expose this racially-targeted fraud, shift the terms of debate and prevent MCRI from getting on the state ballot by compelling the relevant state authorities to do their job to maintain basic standards of fairness and honesty in Michigan elections. Everyone who believes in equality of opportunity and fairness and honesty in elections must stand up and speak out.
Hurricane Katrina exposed for the whole world the rank, detestable racist inequality that characterized New Orleans. But every thinking person knows the same racist inequality and segregation plagues every metropolitan area of our country. Would a natural disaster show the same pattern in Cincinnati? Or Los Angeles? Or Detroit? Yes, of course it would. This man-made pattern of racist inequality and segregation can be changed. It was created by people - it can be changed by people.
To change a pattern this deep, this pervasive and destructive requires power. Where can such a power be found? In the rising new, independent, militant integrated civil rights movement and the mass political awakening that is about to grip our country. The young leaders stepping forward now are the voice of this political awakening.
We are building the new civil rights movement where the movement led by Martin Luther King left off. We need the young leaders to step forward now who want to be the voice of the approaching political awakening. Victory in this fight and in the struggle for equality and integration generally requires building the new mass civil rights movement. Our record of success, including our victory defending affirmative action at the U.S. Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger, results from the growth of the new movement. Building this movement will require a new generation of young leaders to come forward who are prepared to tell the truth about the inequality and injustice that still characterize this society. Join the movement. Join BAMN.
Hurricane Katrina not only exposed the racist inequality, it exacerbated it. The racists' attack on affirmative action, if it succeeds in outlawing all affirmative action for women and minorities, will also expose and exacerbate racist inequality. The difference is that the attack on affirmative action is a man-made catastrophe for black people - perpetrated with the time-honored methods of fraud and deceit. Katrina was a color-blind weather system; the so-called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative is backed by the Michigan Ku Klux Klan. Its purpose is to degrade the conditions of life for black and other minority people in our state. Affirmative action is a desegregation plan for higher education and the workplace; if it is outlawed, racist inequality and segregation will intensify. If the racists get away with using racially-targeted fraud in Michigan - it will open the flood gates for this attack in every city and state of the nation. If we join together, get organized and fight, we will win. We can do this.
The Fight So Far Against MCRI's Racially-Targeted Fraud:
Of the random sample of 500 signatures selected by the Michigan Board of State of Canvassers, not a single black voter who signed knew that measure would end or limit affirmative action. Just under a quarter of the total signatures come from overwhelmingly black cities. Voters had been told by paid petition circulators that this initiative would "protect affirmative action," "help black students get into college," and "stop the attack on affirmative action in Michigan." The ballot language itself was so misleading that two Circuit Court judges read it and signed it not knowing it would end or limit affirmative action. This fraud extended to pro-affirmative action white voters as well.
On the basis of concern over the extent of racially-targeted fraud the Board of State Canvassers refused to certify MCRI for the ballot. The racists then filed suit in the conservative Michigan Appeals court. BAMN has filed suit demanding that black and pro-affirmative action voters - the real victims of this fraud and deceit and the people who will be affected by the outcome of this case – have the right to join the Board as defendants and have a voice in the proceedings. No hearing date is set.
When the hearing takes place, we must mobilize across the state to say loud and clear to the Appeals Court that we do not accept fraud and deceit as a means to attack civil rights.
