The Choice Channel

“Three years after the Supreme Court heard Jennifer Gratz’s challenge to the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy, she is still fighting racial preferences, this time in a Michigan ballot initiative. ‘We have a horrible history when it comes to race in this country,’ said Ms. Gratz, 29, a white applicant who was wait-listed 11 years ago at the state’s flagship campus here. ‘But that doesn’t make it right to give preference to the son of a black doctor at the expense of a poor student whose parents didn’t go to college.’ The ballot initiative, Proposition 2, which would amend Michigan’s Constitution to bar public institutions from considering race or sex in public education, employment or contracting, has drawn wide opposition from the state’s civic establishment, including business and labor, the Democratic governor and her Republican challenger. But polls show voters are split, with significant numbers undecided or refusing to say where they stand.” (10/31/06)