The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative needs at least 317,000 signatures by July 6 to send Michigan voters to task on the fate of state institutions and how they treat matters of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.
As of Monday afternoon, a Michigan Civil Rights Initiative campaign manager said they were 757 signatures in excess, 106 days early of their goal. Of course, these numbers are by no means credible, as petitions circulating the state still need to be filed in order to be considered valid.
With good faith that petitions will be filed and the current number stands as accurate, it's a foreseeable reality that the concept of prohibiting "the University of Michigan and other state universities, the state and all other state entities from discriminating or granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin" will be decided in a voting booth this November, we hope by 'U,' if 'U' choose to vote.
We urge voters to say no to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. And the reasoning is probably more simple than one would imagine.
Civil rights should not be a matter to be voted upon. Choose your elected leaders wisely, and be flagrantly supportive of giving discount bus fare to seniors and students (or not), but reopening an avenue for continued discrimination against racial or ethnic minorities is deplorable.
The State News has been a long-standing supporter of racial equality at all costs. In our stance, we've heard students and citizens when they've decried racially preferential treatment as inherently unfair and illogical, and we've listened again when the opposing view has spoken its mind. But discrimination in any form, be it college academic opportunity or postgraduate hiring, has absolutely no place in our state or our state's future, at anyone's disadvantage.
Now, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative seeks to abolish discrimination as well. That intent is commendable. But as regrettable as it is to report, people born as racial or ethnic minorities inevitably will face hardships based not on the content of their character, but the color of their skin. From street-level vendors to the board rooms of American skyscrapers 100 stories above, discrimination exists.
These hardships are not subject to the language or implementation of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. As a result, that affirms our belief that any measure of putting civil rights on the ballot is never a solution. By putting a civil rights issue to Michigan voters, it suggests that society at large is racially and ethnically sound enough in relation to one another that we're ready to admit no one is at a societal disadvantage based on race. That's unfortunately wrong.
Proponents of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative are by no means racists, nor are they evil-mongers bent on giving themselves advantages at the cost of others. It's a cause they strongly believe in. We believe in something else.
Michigan is by no means a divisive, racially biased culture, but the playing field isn't leveled just yet. Until it is - which progress is certainly dictating - matters of civil rights have no place on any ballot, anywhere.
