I thought I'd follow up on a previous post that has touched a nerve with one our state's "progressive" bloggers who seems to be in support something called the Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative. A taste of some of the official propaganda for the initiative can be found here. A quick Google search will turn up more propaganda as well as plenty of right-wing bloggers and pundits who are just giddy about the prospect of ending affirmative action in Oklahoma (three other states are being targeted during the upcoming election cycle: Arizona, Colorado, and Missouri). Of course the same search will also turn up the other side of the story, for those willing to keep a sufficiently open mind to read (for the initiative's die-hard proponents, that won't happen of course).
We learn from one source that since a similar initiative was passed in California, the proportion of women hired at UC Irvine has plummeted - I'm under the impression that similar phenomena can be found throughout California and Washington - the two states with the lengthiest histories of life after the passage of this initiative. The blog Freedom and Reason offers an expose of the folks behind the initiative: Ward Connerly, David Horowitz, the Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation, among others. The McCarville Report Online has Rep. Mike Shelton's statement against the initiative. On a similar note, see this NewsOk.com story.
See also Oklahoma Women's Network Blog. On a related note, check Arthur Silber's Racist Nation, to better understand the Zeitgeist that would make such ballot initiatives (along with a host of other policies) acceptable to so many - including those who really should know better. Stay tuned...
Crossposted from The Mahatma X Files
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