A seemingly innocent initiative has tiptoed onto Nebraska’s state ballot, promising equal opportunity and the end of discrimination.
Behind these misleading seductions, the initiative, Measure 424, will effectively end our state government’s affirmative action policies and will increase the socioeconomic gap between whites and minorities.
Besides a few town hall discussions around the state, Measure 424 has been buried underneath other news since its conception last spring. Its main proponent, Ward Connerly, a California businessman, has made it a personal mission to end race and gender preferences in state institutions.
Connerly founded the American Civil Rights Institute, and its Nebraska branch held a petition drive to get the proposal on the ballot.
The petition drive ended with 136,589 eligible signatures according to an article published in the Omaha World-Herald. However, a lawsuit in district court accuses petition circulators of allowing people to sign their spouses’ names and failing to properly describe the proposal to potential signers.
The court case, while still being decided, should be enough to cast doubts on the dishonesty of Measure 424. Yet, if the presiding judge, Karen Flowers, does not remove the initiative from the ballot, Nebraska voters should understand the consequences of such a policy.
First, Connerly and his institute rallied support for similar initiatives all over the country on the basis of expanding civil rights. His arguments focus on the exclusions of whites and Asians because of affirmative action programs; however, no major beacon of civil rights in our country, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, has supported his cause.
Second, our state, and more specifically our city, has a widening disparity between white and black citizens. Connerly argues that affirmative action should be determined on an economic basis, instead of race. Yet, all too often, economic differences fall on racial lines.
Omaha has the third highest black poverty rate out of America’s 100 largest cities and has the highest poverty rate for black children in the nation. Through affirmative action, especially in the state’s public education system, we can begin to bridge this gap.
While Measure 424 will not affect Creighton directly, continued passage of similar legislation will proliferate acceptance of Connerly’s opinions across the country.
Most importantly, we must understand affirmative action is not an end in itself. Institutionalized preferences based on race and gender should not be a societal goal.
However, in a society where we value equal opportunity, we must realize that exissting structures consistently disadvantage women and minorities. Thus, affirmative action is a means to a higher goal of racial and gender equality. Adoption of Measure 424 would only further entrench racial differences in Omaha.
Our university’s president the Rev. John P. Schlegel, S.J., wrote a guest column with James Milliken, the president of University of Nebraska at Lincoln, in the Lincoln Journal Star. They argued that an “anti-affirmative action initiative would actually have the effect of limiting opportunity for our citizens . . .”
We in the Creighton community should follow our president’s lead.
Student organizations such as Creighton’s chapter of the NAACP and the Lieben Center for Women should consider sponsoring an emergency information drive for Nebraska voters here on campus. The goal of the drive should be spreading awareness about the true meaning of Measure 424 and about the consequences of abolishing affirmative action.
More importantly, students, faculty and staff who are Nebraska voters should strike down the initiative. A resounding defeat for Measure 424 will echo across the nation, especially from a state where almost 92 percent of the population is white.
If we want to be men and women for others, we must understand that equal opportunity does not change with a person’s gender or skin color. Voting “No” to Measure 424 will fortify our pursuit of lasting justice in the community.