DETROIT — In an effort to inform community members of the anti-affirmative action ballot, the ACLU of Michigan and One United Michigan will host a workshop entitled “Mobilizing our Base Against the Proposed Affirmative Action Amendment: United Against Ward Connerly,” on Tuesday, June 20, 2006.
“This important workshop gives community members and leaders an opportunity to join the ranks of the frontline in the battle against the MCRI,” said Kary L. Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan. “We don’t want the election to come and go and have people say ‘we didn’t know the MCRI was against affirmative action.’ We want all communities affected by the initiative to be able to make informed decisions at the polls.”
Attendees of the workshop will learn the 10 most common myths about affirmative action and will have the opportunity to participate in community focused break-out sessions that discuss the affects of the MCRI on the African American, Arab American, Asian American, Native American and Latino communities.
The MCRI is a California-based initiative that seeks to abolish affirmative action, and race and gender-conscious programs which receive state-funding. The MCRI.’s broad language will make any state-funded program which uses race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin as criteria vulnerable.
The event will feature national and local presenters including Moss; Kimberle Crenshaw, UCLA & Columbia Law Schools; Luke Harris, Vassar College & the African American Policy Forum, and staff from the ACLU of Michigan and One United Michigan.
Also sponsoring the event are ADC; ACCESS; Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC); Asian American Center for Justice; Black Law Student Association of Wayne Law; Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW); the Consortium of Hispanic Agency Directors (Detroit Hispanic Corporation Development; La SED, Inc.; Latino Family Services; SER Metro Detroit; MANA de metro Detroit); Michigan Asian Pacific American Bar Association, NAACP-Michigan State Conference; New Detroit; Students of Color of Rackham-University of Michigan, and other organizations.
What: “Mobilizing our Base Against the Proposed Affirmative Action Amendment: United Against Ward Connerly,” a workshop to preserve affirmative action in Michigan.
Who: ACLU of Michigan, One United Michigan and allied organizations
When: Tuesday, June 20, 2006, Registration: 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.; Program Begins: 10:00 a.m.
Where: Wayne State University Law School,
471 W. Palmer Street
Detroit, Michigan 48202