In an interview in Madison, Wisconsin, Ward Connerly remarked,
“The larger problem is how to get more eligible black students with a 40 percent high school dropout rate in California. They don’t know about the importance of education (and) why it’s so important for them to accept responsibility for themselves. There is a basic cultural change […]
White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. Shelby Steele. HarperCollins, 2006.
The approval by voters of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative merely marks another step along the path of a much deeper cultural shift on the part of blacks and whites. The old formulas have not worked, are […]
Shelby Steele is a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of a number of books on racial and social affairs. A number of his articles are available online. His work is highly insightful into the tragic dynamics of black, white politics and racial preferences. A person from whom Michigan has much to […]
Thomas Sowell, Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Encounter Books, 2005.
The approval by voters of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative corroborates Thomas Sowell’s observation in his Preface to the book, referring to “a growing willingness to consider views that differ from the racial orthodoxy that has prevailed largely unchallenged from the 1960s onward in intellectual circles […]
Michigan’s media has the opportunity to set a new tone instead of the divisive misrepresentations of the opponents of the will of the people during the entire debate over MCRI.
Please start reporting honestly and with a sense of balance, allowing real discussion and debate to take place. It would be refreshing and would help Michigan […]
“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” - Martin Luther King, Jr.
–
Frederick Douglass
When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; […]
Both the Detroit News and the Free Press, indeed most of the media in Michigan, have sunk to the level of negative propaganda against the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, manipulating and suppressing open and free discussion.
For instance, unable to address the real issue of MCRI, the 14th Amendment requirement for equal treatment under the law, […]
Along with Ralph Ellison, Robert Hayden achieved the deepest insight into what it means to be a human being, an American, a citizen of Michigan, an understanding that still rings true today, decades after his passing. I can’t believe for a single moment that Robert Hayden would ever have approved of what racial preferences have […]
NOT to be missed…. One of the most important interviews for MCRI, reaching a very large audience….
Jennifer Gratz Defeats Debbie Dingell on the Frank Beckmann Show, WJR 760AM radio:
Listen to Jennifer Gratz expose the scare tactics that Proposal 2 opponents use and catch Debbie Dingell, co-chair of One United Michigan, in outright lies about […]
John McWhorter. Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America. Gotham, 2006.
John McWhorter’s Winning the Race has a strong sociological approach to the issues of black America, surveying the history of the development of the inner cities and the welfare system, leading to the dependence that later found expression in affirmative action and racial […]
Opinion: Vote “No” on Proposal 2. Jennifer M. Granholm, Michigan Governor. Dennis W. Archer, Former Detroit Mayor.
U. of M’s own statistics just recently released by the Center for Equal Opportunity prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that less qualified minorities have a 70 to 1 advantage over white and Asian applicants with the same […]
The website of the Western Michigan University College Republicans has turned up a number of interesting links that Michigan voters might want to consider in evaluating BAMN’s anti-MCRI position and its association with One “United” Michigan, which continues to slander and smear MCRI in the media, instead of addressing the ideas and issues. One “United” […]
YES on 2 Hits the Airwaves!
(Lansing) - Today, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative began its “YES on 2″ TV ad campaign. The ad features MCRI Executive Director Jennifer Gratz and ACRC Chairman Ward Connerly.
Frederick Glaysher
Why Voters Should Approve the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative
http://www.fglaysher.com/MCRI/
Black commentator MYCHAL MASSIE offers an insightful critique of both Democrats and Republicans and makes these observations on MCRI on WorldNetDaily.com
“Republicans in Michigan are opposing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. Said initiative would allow for every Michigander to compete on a fair and level playing field according to their respective skills and abilities, regardless of […]
At this juncture of public debate and lack thereof, given the media’s censoring real discussion and having gone over almost completely into negative propaganda against MCRI, I think many Michigan citizens might find it helpful to consider the testimony of MSU Professor William Allen, who happens to be a black person, and his and Barbara […]
Racial Preferences Mean Big Government. By Thomas L. Krannawitter. The Claremont Institute.
Here’s a radical idea applicable to MCRI:
“all citizens possess equal natural rights and that constitutional government’s only legitimate purpose is equal protection of those rights.”
Frederick Glaysher
Why Voters Should Approve the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative
http://www.fglaysher.com/MCRI/
Race-Colored Classes. The University of Michigan badly needs MCRI. By Michael O’Brien. October 30, 2006.
A student at the University of Michigan has published a revealing article on the carnival atmosphere that prevails at U of M surrounding Proposal 2, MCRI. Alas, all too true. He mentions Mary Sue Coleman praising the Black Action Movement’s […]
Proposal 2 effects on state debated. Free Press. October 27, 2006. BY ALEJANDRO BODIPO-MEMBA
Instead of social engineering, here’s a novel idea:
David Littmann, a consultant and former chief economist with Comerica Bank who retired in 2005, says Michigan would be in a better position to compete against other states for new manufacturing operations if Proposal […]
Michigan Association of Scholars. [Press Release and Open Letter to People of Michigan]
The Michigan Association of Scholars is the Michigan affiliate of the National Association of Scholars
2175 General Motors Rd., Milford, MI 48380
Debate Should be Focused on Issues not Hyperbole
(Lansing) - Today, the Michigan Association of Scholars released a letter from 30 scholars and others, […]
John McWhorter has online a number of articles relating to racial preferences and affirmative action. They’re available from his website at the Manhattan Institute. He’s the author of two outstanding books that seriously probe racial matters in our country and how we can, to quote the subtitle of Winning the Race, move “Beyond the Crisis […]
Securing racial spoils. By Shikha Dalmia/Henry Payne. October 26, 2006.
The Washington Times has an excellent article today regarding BAMN and its surrogate One United Michigan “cynically playing to women’s fears.” Definitely worth reading. The sky has not fallen in California, Washington, Texas, nor Florida…. Michigan on November 7, the entire nation thereafter….
Frederick Glaysher
Why Voters […]
Frontpage magazine.com has an article on BAMN that might help Michigan voters understand what type of group has been trying to deprive them of the right to vote for more than three years on MCRI. See also the INCRIMINATING BAMN documentation of its links to the Revolutionary Workers League, a Trotsky organization based in Detroit.
Frederick […]
Wayne State University Law School Dean Frank Wu: “Around 2050 or so, we will cease to have a single identifiable racial majority.”
All the more reason we must base our society on the common standard of the 14th Amendment, equal protection under the law, not racial preferences based on endless discriminations over pigmentation.
Frederick Glaysher
Why Voters Should […]
The Ann Arbor News *almost* achieved a breakthrough, instead of PC rhetoric…. I recommend its editor and all journalists read and reflect more deeply on the work or recent addresses of John McWhorter, Shelby Steele, William Allen, Thomas Sowell, Bill Cosby, Juan Williams, and Ward Connerly, among others….
Racial preference is discrimination. There is no honest […]
The Center for Equal Opportunity has recently released statistics on racial preference admissions at the University of Michigan. Anyone interested in MCRI might want to consider the results:
[…]
Jennifer Gratz on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor. MCRI
For further insight into what type of group has been opposing MCRI, click HERE
Frederick Glaysher
Why Voters Should Approve the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative
http://www.fglaysher.com/MCRI/
Last night I attended the debate at the University Presbyterian Church in Rochester Hills. An entirely white audience of predominately grey-haired liberals, it was a highly manipulated forum. Questons were only allowed written on cards, which were then screened, deliberately misread, and censored in order to give preference to BAMN’s surrogate One United Michigan.
BAMN and […]
I participated in a forum in Chelsea, Michigan, on October 12th, sponsored by One World One Family. A small town west of Ann Arbor, people attending were mostly white, liberal, and well intentioned. As Shelby Steele has written, we don’t want to be racist or have it thought that we might be. The stigmata of […]
I’ve been rereading a report by the Michigan Association of Scholars published in 1998. It quotes Professor Carl Cohn:
“Preference by race is given systematically at the U. of M. to applicants for admission . . . The evidence for this is overwhelming, the conclusion is indisputable.”
The report “Racial Preferences in Michigan Higher Education” discusses the […]
John McWhorter, Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. 2000. MCRI
In his book Losing the Race, John McWhorter discusses the cause of the achievement of black students reaching a “plateau” in the late 1980s, beyond which it has yet to rise:
“In this light, the maintenance of affirmative action nothing less than hinders the completion of […]
Listen to Jennifer on “Rightalk Radio” with Curt Allen. MCRI Executive Director, Jennifer Gratz was recently interviewed on “Talking Politics and Law” with Curt Allen. Jennifer does a great job at explaining the issue and discussing some of the opposition that MCRI has faced.
Frederick Glaysher
Why Voters Should Approve the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative
http://www.fglaysher.com/MCRI/
Instead of white people feeling good, the “masta’ takin’ care o’ da darkies” through white guilt, social engineering, and rigging the numbers, America needs to move on to a higher level of interracial understanding that respects people by expecting something of all its citizens, equally.
In literary terms, racial preferences are tantamount to Ralph Ellison’s battle […]
Professor William Allen. Conditions for Cultural Violence. MCRI
Regarding the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), MSU Professor William Allen makes an observation in his August 2, 2006 Interview with Barbara Grutter that many people of all backgrounds might want to reflect on for the seriousness of the political and social situation with which BAMN and its […]
MCRI Releases I’m Proud radio ad
Listen to the ad that is so effective, our opponents
don’t want you to hear it. Click HERE
http://www.michigancivilrights.org/radio.html
Frederick Glaysher
Why Voters Should Approve the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative
http://www.fglaysher.com/MCRI/
To understand what type of group has been opposing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative for the last three or four years, concerned citizens might want to watch the brief video of BAMN members disrupting the Board of Canvassers meeting at the State Capitol on December 14, 2005.
Click HERE to view it.
Frederick Glaysher
Why Voters Should Approve […]
Toward A Fair Michigan. Creating the Civic Forum to Discuss Affirmative Action Preferencs.
For anyone who has missed it, I highly recommend the website for Toward a Fair Michingan. Professor William Allen at the Michigan State University has sponsored and compiled a significantly insightful collection of print and video interviews discussing virtually ever dimension […]
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, MCRI, has just Released a Second Radio Ad. Click HERE to listen to the 60 second broadcast.
Frederick Glaysher
Juan Williams, Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure that are Undermining Black America–and What We Can Do About It. Crown, New York. 2006.
The major shortcoming of Juan Williams book is that he doesn’t go far enough. But more of that later. It should first be said that he goes very far […]
“A Decision-Making Guide to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative”. Almost. MCRI
The so-called “balanced” UM Decision-Making Guide to MCRI is as biased against it as anything could be, while pretending otherwise. It is clearly a piece of UM propaganda for continuing discrimination based on race, sex, and other arbitrary quailities. Here’s the key sentence:
“Finally, it is […]
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, MCRI, has just started the “Yes on 2” Radio Campaign. Click HERE to listen to the 60 second broadcast that will soon be appearing on Michigan radio stations.
Frederick Glaysher
Affirmative action ban isn’t black and white. Detroit Free Press. September 5, 2006 BY DAWSON BELL.
In a Detroit Free Press article, Ward Connerly is quoted regarding the California 209 initiative, emphasizing again that the issues are more than statistics:
“Connerly said the measure of 209’s success is in the way individuals are treated.
“The vision should be, […]
Civil Rights Initiative creator confident voters will pass it. Web-posted Aug 30, 2006. By KANIQUA S. DANIEL of The Oakland Press.
Ward Connerly is extensively quoted in The Oakland Press. In brief, much of what Michigan needs to understand about the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI).
“First of all, I think people are forgetting one thing: I’m […]
Some might be interested in knowing that Terrence J. Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, stated in The Detroit News yesterday,Wednesday, August 09, 2006, that CIR would represent Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) in federal court against Kwame Kilpatrick and BAMN’s desperate lawsuit.
“Let voters, not federal judges, decide state’s civil rights issue”:
“The largely […]
MCRI - Michigan Civil Rights Initiative - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Do a Fascinating Show on the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative
Fred Glaysher has been a Hit on Over 220 Stations Nationwide
It’s one of today’s most explosive and compelling topics. Ask your listeners what they think of racial preferences and the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and watch the […]
Yesterday in an article in The Jackson Citizen-Patriot newspaper, titled “Leader of ballot effort brings message to Jackson,” Thursday, August 03, 2006, by Paul Overeiner, someone was cited as claiming young girls and women would be hurt by the passage of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which is definitely not the case. As has become […]
I had the pleasure of being invited to hear Ward Connerly and Jennifer Gratz speak yesterday at a MCRI Conference in Livonia, Michigan. Both outlined the necessity of equality before the law for all people and the pervasive social problems that race preferences have created in Michigan and throughout the country.
I was impressed by their […]
“I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by content of their character.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
How can we accept that these have become deeply ironic words? Can anyone read them and not feel how […]
“A society as enormously powerful as America lacks the authority to ask its most brilliant, wealthy and superbly educated minority students to compete freely for college admission with poor whites who lack all these things. Just can’t do it.” -Shelby Steele
By definition, preferential treatment is not about equal treatment or competition; it’s about how […]
“So their kids can’t go to college…” said George B. Washington, an affirmative action attorney with Scheff & Washington in Detroit.
Scare tactics and excessive rhetoric has been and remains the strategy of BAMN and other opponents of equal treatment under the law, regardless of race. Similarly, BAMN and others, aided by much of the media, […]
“I think the questions that the MCRI has never answered is how do they get 125,000 black people to sign a petition so their kids can’t go to college and the answer is obvious,” said George B. Washington, an affirmative action attorney with Scheff & Washington in Detroit.
On February 23, 2006, at the Gerald R. […]
“Young blacks became separatists because they were frightened by the need to compete.” -Ralph Ellison, 1973 interview.
The separatist impulse, of any stripe whatsoever, always has a ready source to draw upon, human insecurity. A few formidable intellectuals like Ellison realized long ago that the underlying dynamics of the radical fringe was headed in the wrong […]
“Al Sharpton quite explicitly rouses the rabble with the intent of scaring the white man into concessions: ‘Confrontation works,’ as he admitted….” -John McWhorter, Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America (32-33).
It was in the Kresge Lounge at Oakland University in about 1996 that I heard political science Professor Vincent Khapoya admit that something like […]
“Now stigmatized as racists, whites can easily be extorted by blacks for countless concessions.” Shelby Steele, A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America (120).
BAMN’s tactics have been precisely those described so perceptively by Shelby Steele as stigmatization, threatening it, and exploiting the sense of guilt white liberals and others misguidedly feel. […]
“Supporters of affirmative action are in a state of massive denial. The problem of black enrollment at elite universities is not the result of racist admissions policies. It is the result of poor black academic performance.” -David Horowitz, Hating Whitey (77)
Having taught English composition for ten years to freshman students in four different universities and […]
It is reprehensible that the mainstream media, such as NPR and now the Chronicle of Higher Education, would spin their reporting to assist BAMN. Serious concern for race relations in America today ought to at least begin with the recognition that Ward Connerly, John McWhorter, and many other outstanding Americans, including more than 176,000 African-Americans […]
“In matters of race relations, the campus generates and exports hysteria, and it is the common sense of the ordinary man and woman in the street that must provide a corrective. The college campus is the last place one would now expect to have a rational discussion of affirmative action.” -John M. Ellis, Literature Lost: […]
“The intellectual catastrophe that has overtaken the humanities is not just a by-product of affirmative action. It *is* affirmative action transformed into a curricular and intellectual climate.” -John M. Ellis, Literature Lost: Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities, 1997 (216)
Few people outside education can fully understand the extent to which affirmative action suffuses […]
Since the Michigan media can’t be relied on to report Ward Connerly’s response to the Governor’s misleading statements regarding MCRI, bloggers will have to present the facts for voters to decide for themselves:
–
March 17, 2006
The Honorable Jennifer M. Granholm
Office of Governor
State of Michigan
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, MI 48909
Dear Governor Granholm:
In your March 9, 2005 Guest Column, […]
“…change the culture of the university, which is what I was (and am still) seeking as much as anything else.” -Ward Connerly (139)
The discimination and preferences hidden behind the pieties of affirmative action have poisoned and corrupted the culture of the university, filtering down through all levels of education, in Michigan and elsewhere throughout the […]
“Clearly, affirmative action has hardened into an ideology in search of a justification.” -Ward Connerly, Creating Equal (22).
Sitting on the stage with BAMN lawyer George Washington and the other participants in the February 23, 2006 forum at the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, the truth of Ward Connerly’s observation hit me like a ton […]
“Discriminatory admissions . . . are wrong because they are a manifest violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which unambiguously forbids institutions receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of race or color or nationality, which we [U. Michigan] admit that we do.” - Carl Cohen
I was shocked […]
“These preferences are also wrong because they violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to our Constitution.” - Carl Cohen
How easily we’ve slid down the slippery slope of the end justifies the means, for decades now, till the worst of the oppressed become the oppressors, in the classic form of human experience. […]
Monday, March 13th, 2006
As I launch this blog, I must emphasize at the outset that I do not officially represent the views and opinions of the Initiative Committee nor anyone connected with it. I speak only for myself, my experience of affirmative action, personal and otherwise…
Frederick Glaysher
www.fglaysher.com
Monday, March 13th, 2006
Why I Collected Signatures for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative
Frederick Glaysher
Two reasons among many:
1. Murray State University, October 1994 - Filed with EEOC, KY
2. Reverse racism at Lewis & Clark Community College, Godfrey, Illinois
………
EEOC, St. Louis, Missouri - Filed with EEOC, MO
Center for Individual Rights - Feldacker & Cohen
—– Original Message —–
From: Azizi Jasper
To: earthrisepress
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2006 1:09 PM
Subject: MCRI Debate in Grand Rapids MI
Greetings,
On February 23, 2006; I Azizi Jasper and Jonathan Jelks have organized a non-partisan community forum at the Gerald R. Ford museum to discuss the Michigan Civil Rights ballot proposal. This very controversial initiative has been the […]