Formal Opposition to All Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative

WHEREAS, California has set the tone for the rest of the nation with ballot initiatives; and

WHEREAS, Ward Connelly's "Racial Privacy Initiative" (RPI) bans the state from classifying people according to race, ethnicity, color or national origin; and

WHEREAS, Ward Connelly's proposed RPI would prevent most state-funded and all government agencies from collecting race-related data;

WHEREAS, the lack of collection of this data would not allow many agencies and the general population to understand the positive or negative impacts of their policies or programs on ethnic communities including in the area of education, delivery of public services and public assistance; and

WHEREAS, the lack of data will not allow for the understanding of disparities or successes related to service delivery; and

WHEREAS, the proposed RPI constitutes bad public policy for California and a bad precedent for the Nation; and

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP officially opposes the RPI and all similar initiatives and acts:

1. Television to include but not limited to press conferences, public service announcements, and television advertisements.
2. Text-based press to include, but not limited to newspapers, journals, magazines, newsletters, and various forms of electronic media, such as Internet websites and e-mails.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP encourages its units to rally to defeat all Racial Privacy Initiatives in any form.