Stardate 20030810.2240

(On Screen via long range sensors): A few years ago, the voters of the State of California passed an initiative which made it illegal for the University of California to use race as a factor in admissions decisions.

Not, mind, that this stopped the regents from doing so anyway. They just disguised it really strongly through the use of "diversity-based bonuses". Candidates get points for their academic merit as indicated by scores on standardized admissions tests, but they can also get points for things like "overcame adversity", the criteria for which is apparently rather hazy.

That first initiative was sponsored by a renegade member of the UC Board of Regents named Ward Connerly. This year he's gotten another initiative on the ballot, only it's a lot more wide-ranging. What it will do is to make it illegal for any part of the State of California to classify people according to race or ethnicity or national origin, except in certain specific cases.

As might be imagined, there is a constituency which hates this. Despises it. Loathes it. And is scared shitless because polls show that far more voters support it than oppose it.

"If passed, this initiative will be the nuclear bomb of race relations," said Stan Oden, a college instructor and leader of Sacramento Citizens Against the Information Ban.

"This plan is anti-democratic," he said. "It seeks to take away the gains that were made in the civil rights movement -- hard-fought gains that people fought for, and died for, to bring racial equality to this country."

Whatever else it might be, just how can a ballot initiative be considered anti-democratic? Doesn't "democracy" mean "government obeys the will of the voters as expressed in elections"?

This is part of the upside-down campus new-speak, where censorship promotes free speech and discrimination promotes equality and color-blind rules are bigotry. ("...and up is down, and sideways is straight ahead." -- Cord, the Seeker) Apparently elections are anti-democratic.

I think that people like Oden are particularly terrified because this ballot measure is going to be decided in the election where we're also going to decide whether to recall Governor Davis, and choose a successor for him. That's going to make turnout very strong. It's not uncommon for measures to fare much differently when voter turnout is heavy than when it's light, and I suspect in this case it's going to make it even more likely to pass,  since it's odds-on that a Democratic governor will be recalled and replaced with a Republican. (Named "Arnold"...)

Which, in a sense, means Oden is right. It's anti-Democratic... Party.