|
IJJ Forum: `Affirmative Action: Dead or Alive?’
Too often, the debate over affirmative action consists of dueling 15-second sound bites. To stimulate a better informed dialogue, IJJ presented a forum entitled ”Affirmative Action: Dead or Alive?” The forum was held at USC on Jan. 16, 2007.
Forum moderator was Ellis Cose, a Newsweek contributing editor and author of the special report published by IJJ: “Killing Affirmative Action: Would ending it really result in a better, more perfect Union?”
Panelists were:
- Ward Connerly, sponsor of California’s Proposition 209, who serves as chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute.
- Jennifer Gratz, executive director of the anti-affirmative action Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and plaintiff in the Gratz v. Bollinger Supreme Court case.
- Andrea Guerrero, a San Diego attorney and author of “Silence at Boalt Hall: The Dismantling of Affirmative Action.”
- Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.
Following the panel, Connerly delivered a speech and took part in a Q-and-A session.
The events were part of IJJ's weeklong Racial Justice Fellowships Conference: "Covering the Complexities of Civil Rights, Equity and Opportunity." The conference was supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation.
|
