4 - Tuesday, November 7, 2006
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Ie diidigan aUj
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EMILY BEAM
DONN M. FRESARD CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK JEFFREY BLOOMER
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position oftthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed
articles and illustrations representsolely the views of their authors.
Stop Proposal 2
MCRI is bad for entire state
University President Mary Sue Coleman will probably
be tuned in to the state and national election results
tonight, but what she and many others at the Univer-
sity will have most in mind is what voters decide on Proposal
2. This is an important election year at both the national and
state level, but no issue on the ballot will have a greater effect
on the University than Proposal 2.
They can't
run anything
right."
- Former President BILL CLINTON, referring to Re-
publicans and their poor management of the war Let the curtain fall where it may
in Iraq, at a Democrat campaign stop in Rochester,
N.Y., as reported yesterday by CNN.com.
The conspiracy of arrogance
With Jennifer Gratz at the lead, pro-
ponents of the Michigan Civil Rights Ini-
tiative have attempted to turn Proposal
2 into a referendum on the University's
admissions policy. There is little doubt
that should the proposal pass, the Uni-
versity would be forced to stop using race
and ethnicity in its admissions decisions
as soon as this year. A diverse student
body at the University benefits students
here and communities across the state,
and the most reasonable way to achieve
that diversity is through the University's
current admissions policy.
The University may not be able to fix
the drastic inequalities in education
that make college unattainable for many
underprivileged students, while it is often
the expectation for their wealthier peers.
But what it can do is allow qualified stu-
dents who didn't attend schools that
offered 12 advanced placement courses
and didn't come from four generations
of University graduates to have a shot at
attending the University.
Even so, a good number of Michigan
residents are uncomfortable with the
University's admissions policy. But that
is not reason enough to support Propos-
al 2. The impact of Proposal 2 would be
broad. On campus, the University's Sum-
mer Bridge and Women in Science and
Engineering programs would be affect-
ed. Beyond State Street, it would inter-
fere with programs to interest junior
high school girls in science and prohibit
efforts to include minorities and women
in public contracting, to namea few areas
it would impact.
Those effects are certain. And given the
vague language of the ballot, what's also
certain is that, like in California, public
institutions would be mired in lawsuits
as the people and the court system sort
out what "preferential treatment" actu-
ally means in legal terms.
In short, Proposal 2 is a bad idea. That's
why both gubernatorial candidates and
prominent members of both major politi-
cal parties oppose it. That's why it's one
issue on which the Detroit Regional
Chamber of Commerce and the Michi-
gan AFL-CIO agree.
Affirmative action alone cannot
undo the legacy of inequality gener-
ated by centuries of racism and gender
discrimination. But without it, society
will be less, not more; equal. If Proposal
2 passes, it may settle the discussion of
whether affirmative action has a place
in our state - but it will also provide a
convenient excuse to overlook issues of
racial and gender inequality that remain.
Michigan cannot make the same mis-
take California and Washington did.
Vote NO on Proposal 2.
History's greatest evils are com-
mitted by individuals convinced
that they can do only good. If
the last five years
have taught us any- ,
thing, it's that the
"stay the course"
dogmatism of the n
Bush Administra-
tion is not merely an
intellectual incapac-
ity but a moral fail-
ure. By refusing to TOBY
seriously consider MITCHELL
the mistakes it has
made, our govern-
ment has only made them more costly,
and it has done so because our leaders are
too blinded by ego and ideology to admit
they've failed in any way.
Journalist Ron Suskind wrote prior to
the 2004 elections about a conversation
he had with a senior adviser to President
Bush. The adviser said that men like Sus-
kind were "in what we call the reality-
based community," which he defined as
the people who "believe that solutions
emerge from your judicious study of dis-
cernible reality." When Suskind agreed,
the aide cut him off: "That's not the way
the world really works anymore. We're an
empire now, and when we act, we create
our own reality. And while you're study-
ing that reality - judiciously, as you will
- we'll act again, creating other new real-
ities, which you can study too, and that's
how things will sort out. We're history's
actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to
just study what we do."
Given the attitude of our leaders, who
can be surprised that conspiracy theo-
ries have gone mainstream? Forty-two
percent of Americans said the adminis-
tration engineered the recent drop in gas
prices with the elections in mind, and
more than a third of the American pub-
lic suspects that federal officials assisted
in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or took no
action to stop them so the United States
could go to war in the Middle East.
Not since the Nixon years has the
paranoid fantasy that our country is run
by a secretive cabal of impossibly amoral
Machiavellian supervillians come closer
to reality. According to the leaked Down-
ing Street memo, "intelligence and facts
were being fixed around (Iraq) policy" at
least seven months before the war. The
administration illegally spied on Ameri-
can citizens, and it now has the power
to detain just about anyone anywhere
in the world, subject them to classified
"alternative interrogation methods" and
hold them indefinitely without the ability
to challenge their imprisonment. When
a detainee at a secret CIA torture camp
tried to discuss his treatment at trial,
the Bush Administration told the judge
that he should be silenced for the sake of
national security.
This administration is that arrogant.
They are the country; their job security
is national security. Despite the tempta-
tion to believe the Internet conspiracy
theory that Dick Cheney is merely the
human form of a 12-foot-tall blood-drink-
ing, child-sacrificing reptile alien bent
on world domination - there is a certain
psychological resemblance - this gov-
ernment's abuses of power are simply the
effect of personal ego blown up to cosmic
proportions. As Cheney himself illustrat-
ed, sometimes these supervillians are just
good ol' boys who can't differentiate their
friend's face from a quail.
The problem with believing you create
reality is that reality has a way of prov-
ing you wrong. If "history's actors" were
really so powerful, would we have heard
about the Mark Foley scandal, where a
known child predator was kept in charge
of the Caucus on. Missing and Exploited
Children? Or of Jim Guckert, a.k.a. Jeff
Gannon, the fake reporter who asked the
president flattering questions until it was
discovered that he was literally a male
prostitute who had somehow ended up
with access to the White House press
briefing? Would Iraqbe where it is now if
they were really in control?
This delusional arrogance doesn't
mean our current government isn't a
real threat to our liberty. When the
administration claims that opposing
its policies is tantamount to supporting
terrorism and then passes laws allow-
ing indefinite imprisonment for sup-
porting terrorists, alarm bells ought
to go off. When conservative activ-
ists' death threats to "liberal activist"
judges prompt former Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to com-
pare the intimidation of an independent
judiciary to the early stages of dictator-
ship, maybe we ought to pause. When
bigoted Christian fundamentalists hot
for Armageddon get involved in Middle
East foreign policy, it's time for America
to wake up and smell the plutonium.
On Election Day today, voters have
a chance to show who the real power is
in this country. Telling ourselves "Why
bother, the system's rigged anyways" or
"There's no real choice, they're all cor-
rupt" is not only false, it's implicitly con-
servative; these attitudes support the
current government in all its arrogance
and incompetence. If we want to change
the system, now is our chance. But if we
don't act, we ought to consider that if
things keep going this way, maybe next
time there really won't be a choice.
Toby Mitchell can be reached
at tojami@umich.edu.
VOTE TODAY!
Make your grandparents proud. Stand up for
democracy. Prove to legislators that "kids
today" are good for something. Get a sticker.
Earn your right to complain about your government.
Besides, everyone knows that if you don't vote, the
terrorists win.
THE CANDIDATES
CHARLES FAIRBANKS EP
We cannot be colorblind
Dick DeVos's lack of political experience
and hard-right social views make Gov.
Jennifer Granholm the better option
for Michigan's governor, despite her
lackluster four years in office. The Daily
endorses JENNIFER GRANHOLM for
governor.
Republican candidate Michael Boucha-
rd's has done a good job as Oakland
County sheriff, but his campaign has
focused almost exclusively on security.
U.S. Senator DEBBIE STABENOW
has the right combination of vision and
experience needed to represent Michi-
gan in the U.S. Senate.
Rep. John Dingell, who has been in
Congress for more than 50 years, is cur-
rently the body's longest-serving mem-
ber - and for good reason. At 80, the
U.S. representative is still going strong;
re-elect JOHN DINGELL.
Of the nine candidates for the Univer-
sity Board of Regents, two stand out.
Vote JULIA DONOVAN DARLOW
and KATHY WHITE for regent.
. The Democratic incumbent for the 18th
District state Senate has concrete plans
for voting reform and draws on a decade
spent in a state Legislature that is short
on experienced members thanks to
term limits. Vote LIZ BRATER for
state senator.
As one of Ann Arbor's most informed
and progressive activists, as well as
a willing representative of students,
REBEKAH WARREN is the Daily's
choice for state representative for the
53rd District.
Ann Arbor cannot hope for someone who
represents its ideals much more passion-
ately than Mayor JOHN HIEFTJE. For
that and his innovative proposals for the
city, such as mass transit plans, the Daily
.supports him for re-election.
As if the alliterative appeal of "Coun-
cilman Kunselman" weren't enough,
STEPHEN KUNSELMAN is also the
most qualified candidate for Ann Arbor
City Council from the 3rd Ward; the
Daily supports him for City Council.
The array of opinions in the Daily sur-
rounding Proposal 2 is impressive, but
what the rhetoric framing this ballot ini-
tiative misses is the historical construc-
tion of whiteness and its privileges.
Most University students, including
myself, grew up ina country where laws
explicitly discriminating against people
of color have been eradicated. Despite
the highly publicized Civil Rights-era
desegregation of schools, most of us
still grew up in predominantly white
communities. In these communities,
our impressions of nonwhite Americans
are largely shaped by the media, often
in the form of political assessments of
urban "structural and social problems."
There is also the occasional portrayal
of individuals who embody the Ameri-
can "rags to riches" myth - stories
that tell us racial disparities in health
and wealth are not our fault and can be
overcome by an individual's hard work
and persistence.
For these reasons, most whites - 70
percent in a recent poll - now believe
that blacks have the same opportunities
as them, and many white students feel
victimized by programs that reduce their
chances of admission, however margin-
ally. These students insist that despite
whatever atrocities occurred in the past,
they are individually innocent of oppress-
ing minority groups, and that efforts to
collectivelycompensate thesegroupsnow
impinge upon their freedom to achieve as
individuals.
By framing affirmative action in terms
that claim tobe colorblind in the name of
equality, supporters of Proposal 2 suggest
that minority groups are the root cause of
inequality: Whiteness is now incidental
with privilege only because many suc-
MCRI supporters
exploitfearfor votes
cessful individuals happen to be white.
This logic is preposterous and histori-
cally obtuse.
The displacement and slaughter of
Native Americans and institutionalized
slaverywerethemostsignificantmeansof
building assets and privileges for whites
at the expense of other races, but the
abatement of such practices did not put an
end to white privilege. For decades after
abolition, legal and illegal stipulations
thwarted nonwhites from accumulating
property or achieving social mobility; by
the time blacks might have been allowed
to stake claims, the federal government
had finished handing out land.
In the 20th century, the Federal
Housing Administration financed loans
to make homeownership a reality for
millions of Americans, but its overtly
racist policies systematically favored
white home buyers moving to segre-
gated suburbs while denying loans to
blacks and others in inner-city or racial-
ly mixed neighborhoods. Meanwhile,
"slum-clearance" and "urban renewal"
projects demolished urban neighbor-
hoods across the country, often with
the intention of building more housing
for poor people, but usually resulting in
little housing replacement.
The legacy of segregation laws and
racist practices still hurts black families
today. To be sure, American deindustri-
alization and the exodus of factory work
affects all working-class people, but the
architecture of de facto segregation and
the continued reality of discrimination
makes the effects of job loss more acute
on black families. This is largely because
the losses of factories and good urban jobs
are accompanied by conservative attacks
on government support of public housing,
health insurance, education and public
transportation.
As George Lipsitz writes, this "dis-
investment in U.S. cities, factories and
schools since the 1970s disguises as racial
problems the general social problems
posed by deindustrialization, econom-
ic restructuring, and neoconservative
attacks on the welfare state and the social
wage." In turn, this disguise "attributes
the economic advantages enjoyed by
whites to their family values, faith, and
foresight - rather than to the favorit-
ism they enjoy through their possessive
investment in whiteness."
Of course, this is not to say that all
whites enjoy these privileges equally,
nor am I saying that affirmative action
is without negative repercussions. But
colorblindness by law does not make up
for hundreds of years of systemic, legally
inscribed socioeconomic racial discrimi-
nation, especiallywhenunderthe reignof
a federal government trying to eviscerate
social services and pass privilege freely
to the next-of-kin (e.g., President Bush's
attack on the estate tax).
Race is a culturally constructed
category, but that does not make the
effects of its social and material deploy-
ment any less real. I fervently hope that
voters reject Proposal 2, but whatever
happens, one thing is clear: We need to
critically understand our nation's past
to build justice into the systems it gave
us. Feigning colorblindness not only
prevents us from understanding other
people - it also blinds us to the contem-
porary relevance of the biggest scars in
American history.
Charles Fairbanks is a graduate
student in the School of Art and Design.
4
4
THE ISSUES
Vote YES on PROPOSAL 1 to make
sure state park user fees stay where
they belong.
The so-called Michigan Civil Rights
Initiative would do much more to deny
opportunities and spawn lawsuits than
it would do to promote the "equality"
its backers say it would bring. Vote NO
on PROPOSAL 2.
No matter how much you hate doves,
there's no need to shoot them. And
remind your hunting friends that no
one is trying to take away their guns.
Vote NO on PROPOSAL 3.
We're not a fan of sneaky City Council
members taking your land to build a
strip mall, but the Michigan Supreme
Court already ruled to prevent that in
2004. Vote NO on PROPOSAL 4.
Proposal 5 might be flawed as a piece
of public policy, but securing education
funding is better than the prospect of
another few years of cuts. Vote YES on
PROPOSAL5.
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM
that Granholm has so carefully cultivat-
ed. Don't let anxiety stand in the way of
a progress for Michigan. Voting no on
Proposal 2 ensures a better future for
Visit www.michigandaily.com for the
full text of the Daily's endorsements.
ERIN RUSSELL
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TO THE DAILY: all of us.
Exploiting fear for a vote: Is it easy?
Yes. But is it right? No. Despite the taste- Dana Cronyn
less nature of these tactics, the Michigan LSAfreshman
Civil Rights Initiative has continued to
manipulate its supporters, branding fear
and anxiety into the heart of its base. It Kerry ml
is important, however, to look past the
euphemistic labeling of Proposal 2 and the way y
realize minorities (be they women, the
disabled or blacks) aren't looking for an TO THE DAIL'
advantage; they're looking for an oppor- Jesse Jackso
tunity. No one is asking for handout to hear speak
- just the same chances automatically day, used Sen.
bestowed upon white males. "botched joke"
Regardless of which political party outrage among:
you support, this is a nonpartisan issue. and Proposal 2
Both Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Dick Jackson sug
DeVos oppose the measure - and for ly used a singl
good reason. Proposal 2 is a backward not a lack of'
initiative that could slow economic young people i
recovery, scaring away employers and of "opportunit
further hindering the economic growth affordable edt
isspoke, but not
you think he did
.Y:
on, whom I had the honor
on campus last Thurs-
John Kerry's (D-Mass.)
- the catalyst of recent
Republicans - to link Iraq
in an interesting way.
gested that Kerry mere-
le word incorrectly: It is
intelligence" that forces
nto Iraq, but rather a lack
y." Without access to an
ucation and good jobs,
A
young people are left with no choice but
to enlist. This concept of the "backdoor
draft" makes it all the more important
to reject Proposal 2, which jeopardizes
valuable opportunities for women and
minorities.
Looking out at the audience and specif-
ically the crowd's women and minorities,
Jackson informed us that "we are all in
the line of fire" from Proposal 2, includ-
ing anyone who attends school with their
tuition subsidized by the state. Then, of
course, there is the fact that this proposal
affects women and girls as much as if not
more than minorities, placing their access
to jobs, special programs and equal pay at
risk. These components, often overlooked
by those not educated on the proposal's
implications, have been deliberately
ignored by the MCRI in their campaign.
I'd like to thank the Daily for its consis-
tent stance in opposition to this proposal
and for encouraging students to vote no
on 2 in today's election.
Lindsay Miars
LSA freshman
4