Pacific Citizen,
News Report, Lynda Lin, Posted: Mar 12, 2008
Jeremiah Tsang calls himself an athlete and a scholar. At his Maryland high school, Tsang's high academic achievements in the top two percent of his class coupled with some state track championships enticed all of his choice colleges to accept him with open arms - some even with promises of a full ride.Tsang, 20, settled at the University of Maryland, College Park as an electrical engineer major. But along the way, he noticed a troubling trend - some African American and Latino classmates with comparatively inferior qualifications were getting more scholarship money to go to the same college.Outraged, Tsang did what most students do these days to unite under a common cause - he started a Facebook.com group called "Asians Against Affirmative Action." The group, which has attracted over 950 members from all over the United States, refers to a 2005 admission preference study of three prestigious private universities to support its statement that this type of diversity promotion does not advance equality. In this case, it actually hurts overrepresented Asian Pacific American students, according to the study."Diversity is good, but at what cost?" said Tsang, who is second generation Chinese American. "Promotion of diversity is a noble thing, but the ideal is not being carried out correctly."It's a sentiment that is echoed by a group, led by former University of California regent Ward Connerly, hoping to capitalize on its successful anti-affirmative action campaigns in California, Washington and Michigan to end similar programs in five additional states come November.Hanging in the balance are the academic futures of many underrepresented minority students.A Broader CrusadeAnti-affirmative action groups have launched a coordinated five state campaign to dismantle preferential treatment based on race or gender in public contracting, employment and education. The campaign - dubbed Super Tuesday for Equality - aims to get anti-affirmative action initiatives on the November ballots in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.Each state requires a varying number of signatures in order to put the initiative before voters, but the controversial campaign is already off to a shaky start with affirmative action proponents vowing to challenge each measure every step of the way.The Oklahoma Supreme Court recently certified an anti-affirmative action initiative for placement on the November ballot. But critics of the measure are accusing the petition-gatherers of lying to voters about what they're signing and circulating false information including pages of signatures with the same handwriting.Affirmative action proponents say they will challenge the measure once the Oklahoma secretary of state posts the notice of approval."We are very confident that we will be able to eliminate a sufficient number [of signatures] to knock the initiative off the ballot," said Donna Stern, of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a national coalition aimed at defending affirmative action.In Nebraska, the anti-affirmative action campaign recently failed to get the initiative placed on the ballot by a vote of the state legislature.Sen. Mark Christensen withdrew a proposed constitutional amendment (LR233CA) prohibiting preferential treatment because some lawmakers said they would not support his other bills if the anti-affirmative action measure was not withdrawn. Backers of the ban on affirmative action will now have to circulate petitions to get the initiative on the Nebraska ballot."The fact that politicians do not want the people to have a chance to debate and vote on this important issue is extremely troublesome," said Jennifer Gratz of the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), a national civil rights organization established by Connerly.Similar anti-affirmative action groups in Colorado, Arizona and Missouri are currently still circulating petitions for deadlines later this year."There are good 'affirmative action' programs that are intended to alleviate discrimination. However, any program that employs preferences for one 'group' based on race or gender automatically discriminates against someone else," said Gratz. [To read the entire article, go to: http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=b8a8190cd75b1761095003b25bb49343 ]
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