Ann Arbor students defend affirmative action
By Julie Fry
Ann Arbor, Mich.
California Board of Regents member Ward
Connerly faced an angry crowd of more than 400 Black and white
students when he spoke at the University of Michigan March
18.
Connerly was the main spokesperson for Proposition 209,
which ended affirmative action in the California state
university system. Anti-racist forces call him a puppet of the
right wing.
The Ann Arbor event's sponsors were a grouping called
"Students for America" and State Sen. David Jaye, who is a
vocal supporter of the so-called National Association for the
Advancement of White People. They had tried to build support
for Connerly before his appearance.
Despite their efforts, however, the room was filled to
capacity with more than 300 affirmative-action supporters.
Another 100 anti-racist students chant ed, "Let us in," outside
the locked doors.
Only a handful of Connerly supporters bothered to show
up.
The evening began with a protest outside the Michigan
League, where the event was held. Protesters then proceeded in
to the lecture room.
There, students took the opportunity to confront Connerly
with devastating statistics on Proposition 209's effects on
California's universities. They spoke about the realities of
racism and sexism in this country, and denounced as hypocrisy
the notion that doing away with affirmative action is a step
toward "equality."
Connerly became visibly nervous and shaken. He refused to
directly answer any questions from the students. At one point,
he reverted to personal insults as he told speakers to "shut
up" and mocked the way a 15-year-old Detroit high-school
student had pronounced the University of California,
Irvine.
At least 60 students stayed after the session to personally
confront Connerly and his right-wing cohorts.
Ward Connerly's reception was part of the current
mobilization by University of Michigan students in response to
a lawsuit challenging the U of M's affirmative-action policies.
Those policies were won by a series of militant protests led by
African American students in the early 1970s.
Now here, as at the University of Texas and elsewhere, the
ruling capitalist class is promoting racist and sexist attacks
against the right to a good education, true equality and social
justice. The U of M lawsuit is the next step in the
right-wing's attempt to abolish one of the most fundamental
rights of oppressed groups.
But students here are ready to draw the line and to say "no
more!" They are organizing to build the kind of fight that will
send the racists packing and show people like Ward Connerly
where the real power lies.
The writer is a U of M student.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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