Part 2: Backlash

Fact Sheet

Transcript

WALTER ALLEN:
Any state nationally that considers passing some form of a ban on affirmative action... should look very carefully at the California experience... The state has in many respects lost its way and lost sight of the fact that the best and most productive investment that you can make is in the education of your population.

DANIEL TELLALIAN:
If the... initiative in Michigan passes, I would tell the people of Michigan to expect... a drain of leaders of color coming from your top institution. Expect a real change in the face and the... nature of your student population, of your graduating professionals, and don't be fooled that everything's going to be ok. I'm hoping that Michigan can learn from the mistakes of California over 10 years ago.

Narrator: With conservative backing, Ward Connerly created an organization dedicated to outlawing affirmative action. In 1998, two years after he led the passage of Proposition 209 in California, Connerly sponsored the Washington Civil Rights Initiative. Connerly's group is encouraging anti-affirmative action campaigns in Arizona, Colorado, and other states. In the state of Michigan, he has joined forces with Jennifer Gratz, a former student who says affirmative action ruined her college plans.

JENNIFER GRATZ:
I applied to the University of Michigan- I thought that I put together a good application- and received a wait-list letter. Throughout the time period between my wait-list letter and what ultimately was my rejection letter, I had watched other people get acceptance letters, some that had lower grades or lower test scores, and by the time my rejection letter came and in the first paragraph the fact that it said: 'This isn't a reflection of your credentials,' but it alluded to the fact that they, the university, wanted to create a 'diverse class.' And I thought, 'my gosh, they really are treating people differently based on skin color.'

Narrator: Not according to the University of Michigan. They told us that in 1995, the year Gratz applied, a number of students were admitted with lower grades and test scores than hers. But 1,100 of these students were white.

MARVIN KRISLOV:
What we try to do is look at the mix of people, and so in any one year it could be some people with less good grades and less good test scores who bring other things to the table. Whether it's musical ability, or socioeconomic background, or geographic background... and there is some effort... we make to try to make sure that we have a very interesting, dynamic class with a good balance of people.

JENNIFER GRATZ:
If the University of Michigan wants to look at people and look at them as individuals... that's completely fine, but it shouldn't matter what that person's skin color is... That person should get that opportunity. And right now, the people that, the only people that get that opportunity are, Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans. It's outrageous.

Narrator: But it's not so outrageous when you consider that most of the preferences used by the University of Michigan - where a student lives, if a parent went to the university, or if a relative gave a large donation to the school - mostly benefit white students. And the reason Jennifer Gratz was not admitted had nothing to do with minority applicants. The truth is, she did not return a letter to the university confirming that she still hemes/advanced/langs/en.js?v=307" type="text/javascript"> // --> wanted to attend.

MARVIN KRISLOV:
Ms. Gratz received a letter saying that she was wait-listed, and she... did not send it in, and as it turned out, in that particular year, everyone who was wait listed was actually offered admission to our college of Literature, Science and the Arts.

Narrator: But that didn't stop her from taking legal action. At the urging of conservative legal groups, Jennifer Gratz and two other students sued the university, arguing reverse discrimination. The cases eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court.

DAN RATHER: Today's rulings uphold affirmative action as a way to promote racial fairness and diversity at public universities.

REPORTER: The Supreme Court is clearly saying universities can pursue diversity and that race can be considered as a factor.

JENNIFER GRATZ:
I called Ward Connerly... the next morning and said, 'We need to do something. Can we do an initiative in Michigan? And will you help in Michigan?' And within days we had launched the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.

GRATZ: You are the key to getting this initiative passed. It's very simple: end affirmative action policies in three specific areas - public contracting, public employment, public education. This initiative is very important; we only get one shot at it. There will not be another opportunity in the state of Michigan to vote to end these policies.

JENNIFER GRATZ:
Every day I get to work on something that I believe in. Every day I'm out talking with voters in different towns, different cities, throughout the state.

Narrator: The first step was to collect enough signatures to put the initiative on the ballot. In Michigan, as in California and Washington, many voters were swayed by what sounded like civil rights language. Others were simply lied to.

RICK PLUTA:
There were all of these complaints about paid petition circulators going out and making claims that may have been misleading to get people to sign.

Narrator: In January 2006, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, a nonpartisan government agency, launched a formal inquiry.

MARK BERNSTEIN:
The Civil Rights Commission produced a report... This report has 1,000 pages in it, and page after page after page of deception, misrepresentation, shameful acts of fraud.

GRATZ: This issue has been in the spotlight for over 10 years, and if people didn't know what they were signing, they just weren't paying attention.

Narrator: The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative will be on the ballot this November. But serious questions about the proposals sponsors remain.

MARK BERNSTEIN:
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative is an entity that has not affiliated itself in any way with any mainstream civil rights organizations. In fact, just to... illustrate how extreme and radical this group is, the only large organization - I don't know if you can call it a civil rights organization - the only entity that has endorsed the MCRI is the Ku Klux Klan.

WARD CONNERLY:
If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right, God bless them, thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are applying, are being applied instead of hate.

Narrator: While the Connerly-Gratz proposal has deepened racial divisions across the state, supporters of affirmative action have started to speak out. They include leaders of the Catholic Church; Jennifer Granholm, the Democratic governor of Michigan; Dick DeVos, the Republican party candidate for governor; the U.S. military; Ford; Chrysler; and General Motors. To educate the public, a grass roots coalition was formed: One United Michigan.

BRANDON JESSUP:
I'm in this fight because someone has to come back and stand on my shoulders. My nieces, my nephews who are now since starting high school, they need to know that someone is not going to kick that ladder from under them like Wardell Connerly is trying to do right now. They need to know that someone's going to hold that ladder up and give them a hand up. We're empowering each other and ourselves as a community. So that's why I'm in the fight.

STEPHANIE CHANG:
People are extremely upset about the voter fraud that happened, and they do feel frustrated. But we turned that sort of anger into positive steps, moving forward to actually to keep the momentum going, and do the mobilization, and do the education.

BRANDON JESSUP:
I eat, sleep, and breathe this, you know? That's what I do. That's honest. I spend every day, nights, weekends, vacations, on working to defeat this initiative, 'cause it's that important to me. My job is to make sure that we all know what the truth is about affirmative action. It's not about handouts, quotas, and all that, it's about opportunity for everybody.

RADIO DJ: This morning, we're going to talk about something that's very important to us, as minorities as well as African Americans, and that is affirmative action. As you all know, coming up in November... on the ballot will be affirmative action.

JESSUP ON RADIO: Affirmative action is a chance to empower yourself and to advance yourself in American society. Get involved, because I mean really, we got to spread the word. 'Cause, honestly, the other side got millions of millions of dollars behind them to lie to you. They goin' to feed you lies from now until November 8th if they can. To make sure that you say 'yes' to ending affirmative action. You've got to say 'no' loud, strong, and clear. So register to vote, get engaged, and let's defeat this thing.

TRISHA STEIN:
Michigan is one of the most segregated states in the country. And I believe because of that... the folks from out of state felt that Michigan was ripe from a political standpoint to come in here and try to eliminate all the affirmative action programs.

PATRICK HAYASHI:
People come in and start an initiative campaign, and rather than nurture the dialogue... it polarizes it, and it... guarantees that the disparities in our society will remain in place forever.

BRANDON JESSUP:
The relentless assault on equal opportunity will stop here in Michigan. We don't have no other choice.

PASTOR IN CHURCH: Let the church say 'Amen' again. My sisters and brothers... we need to let the whole world know where Michigan stands. We need to send the message out very loud and clear: we are not going back, we are going forward. We've got to understand affirmative action might get you in, but once you get in, we have to stay in ourselves. And all we are asking is, 'open up the door. And if you open the door we will stay there.'

MARK BERNSTEIN:
Voters in Michigan are going to have a very unusual opportunity... People need to ask themselves whether or not they think it's a good idea for minority enrollment in schools to plummet. You can look at what happened in California, and that's exactly what's going to happen in Michigan.

CHRISTOPHER EDLEY:
People often ask, 'When will affirmative action end?' I think the right answer is when the opportunity to achieve in K-12 education is as broadly distributed as the natural talents of our children, there will be no need for affirmative action, it will die a natural death. It may be 25 years, it may be 35 years, however long it takes, that's how long we should continue to use affirmative action.