i am a firm supporter of Prop 54.
the opposition has been spreading lies that data-collection for health
purposes is banned by Prop 54. this is totally untrue.
there is a specific written exemption for data collected for
health-management purposes and for law-enforcement purposes.
sarosh kumana
Dave,
One way to address the issues raised by Prop. 54 is to focus on people
who are multiracial. Why should such individuals be forced by
government into denying part of their heritage by being stuck in a
single box?The fact that it is folks of mixed heritage whose existence is being
marginalized is no coincidence. The racial demagogues in society don't
want people to intermingle. They don't want people to have mixed
allegiances — they want everyone to be one color, and one color only.
Note, in this context, the term "La Raza" used by a number of leftist
hispanics — it means "the race" — as if all other ethnicities are
irrelevant. Of course the advocates of maintaining racial divisions
can't achieve this in reality, but they will go to great lengths to
have government maintain the fiction. It helps perpetuate racism when
people are either/or rather than neither/both.I'm also glad to see you put the term "people of color" in quotes.
This is a subtly racist term that I often actively discourage people
from using. It attempts to divide the world into two groups of people,
those of loosely European ancestry and everyone else, implying that the
former group is colorless, or lacks color, and trying to symbolically
unite everyone else against them.Ward Connerly is extremely good at clarifying and articulating these
issues. People wanting more arguments against Prop. 54 might do well to
look up him or his group (I believe it's called the American Civil
Rights Coalition.)Yours in liberty,
<<<Starchild >>>>Hi Everyone,
>
>I want to know if anyone is going to the Political
>Chat tonight. If so, a topic I would like to suggest
>for discussion would be Prop. 54.
>
>Voting yes on Prop. 54, from my understanding, would
>eliminate government institutions from collecting
>racial and ethnic data on people, which is currently
>done by those boxes at the end of most forms we are
>asked to fill out. People in favor of such collection
>of information are urging people to vote No on prop.
>54, allowing this to continue.
>
>People who want this collection of data by government
>institutions to end, and be illegal, want people to
>vote Yes on prop. 54, which will make it illegal.
>
>This sounds pretty straight-forward to me, and an easy
>decision to vote on, however, we do live in the
>Alice-in-Wonderland times that we live in now.
>
>Who would think we would come to a time when many
>people would be in favor of supporting a government
>database collecting names of people and classifying
>them by their race or ethnicity? If one just looks at
>the track record of government's oppression of people
>throughout history, why would one be in favor of so
>easily allowing those who are, or who could be in a
>position of power, to have access to such a thing?
>
>Being a public school teacher, and a student at a
>university, so many people I meet are in favor of
>keeping the collection of racial data in place. Many,
>many students are walking around with buttons that say
>to vote non on 54, keeping racial data collecton in
>place. Those who I've heard speaking claim it's for
>tracking health-related issues, and making sure
>"People of Color" and "minorities" are having their
>needs met. How can we, as Libertarians, convince
>people that this is not a good idea without coming
>across as being uncompassionate to the health and
>"equity" of 'People of Color?'
>
>People claim that this is an attack on "People of
>Color" (voting yes on 54). They want government
>institutions to continue to collect racial and ethnic
>data on POC, and they claim that those who are against
>this (Voting yes on 54), are against "progress" made
>in making sure the needs of POC are met.
>
>Met by who? The government? Again, this is truely
>amazing to me that I would see so many people,
>especially non-white people, wanting to continue such
>collection of such personal information on them, by
>people and institutions that they don't even know.
>
>How do we convince people that this is wrong, without
>sounding that we aren't against "non-white" people
>making progress? This is similar with other issues we
>have to debate on without sounding uncompassionate,
>such as the environment, "universal" health care,
>living wage laws, etc. etc....
>
>I hope people will continue the political Chats, even
>though I can't make them anymore. Tonight I start my
>first class on how to be a Principal of our government
>schools. I wish I could share some of the material we
>are asked to read (for this class) with all of you.
>The last essay I had to read in preparation for my
>class tonight was against free-market solutions to
>public schooling. None of the arguments in this essay
>pointed to why they were against free-market
>principles, but just mentioned over and over the word
>"social justice" and a "lack of equity," throughout
>the entire essay. It's incredible.
>
>Dave Barker.
Sarosh Kumana
www.sfrent.net
Pacific Investment Properties
Tel: 415-861-4554
Fax: 415-861-4209
Cell: 415-425-1584 (PL NOTE NEW CELL #)